Number of the prisoners rose 35% in Iran

Iran is holding 35 percent more prisoners in its jails compared with last year, a judiciary official said in a report on Tuesday.

“By the end of last month, there were over 204,000 people jailed in the country,” Mohammad Ali Zanjirei, deputy head of the Prisons’ Organization, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

“The figure rose by 35.2 percent compared with last year,” he said, only adding that out of every 100,000 people in the Islamic republic, 271 were jailed.

Iran cracked down on critics after the disputed June 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the ensuing unrest, arresting street protesters as well as reformist politicians, rights activists, students and journalists.

Amnesty International said in June that “hundreds of people remain detained for their part in the protests of June 2009 or for otherwise expressing dissenting views.”

Just recently An Iranian court has sentenced a pioneering Iranian blogger to more than 19 years in prison, a human rights activist told Reuters.

“We were surprised that Derakhshan has been sentenced to more than 19 years in prison for cooperating with hostile countries, spreading propaganda and insulting religious figures,” a human rights activists, who asked not be named, told Reuters.

Opposition websites also reported on Tuesday that prominent journalist Issa Saharkhiz had been sentenced to three years in jail for “insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and spreading propaganda against the Islamic system.”

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