Emadeddin Baqi, 48, was indicted for a video broadcast on a BBC program in Farsi. He is charged with propaganda against the establishment and undermining national security. Since 2000, he has been in jail at least 67 times. In 2009 he won a prize for campaigning for human rights in Iran.

Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Iranian judiciary has sentenced journalist Emadeddin Baqi, famous for his battles for human rights, to six years in prison. The confirmation comes from some websites close to the opposition, that man was indicted last September 22 by a revolutionary court in Tehran. He is charged with anti-establishment propaganda and undermining national security.

Environments close to the opposition reported that the evidence used against Baqi is a video interview with Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, broadcast in December - just days after the death of the religious leader - in a BBC program in Farsi . Montazeri, who died last December aged 87 after a long illness, had repeatedly criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accusing his government of using "dictatorial" methods.

The Farsi program on English public television, which is visible in Iran via satellite, is being accused by the Iranian regime of being the "propaganda" of world imperialism and of having a "hostile attitude" towards the Islamic state. The 48 year old Emadeddin Baqi has spent most of the past 10 years in jail or in court because of his critical articles against the power system and activism in favour of political prisoners.

Since 2000 he has ended up in jail at least 67 times and suffers from serious heart and kidney diseases, exacerbated because of prison. Last year in Madrid Baqi was awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, for his campaign for human rights in Iran.

• Iran
• human
• rights
• Emadeddin
• Baqi
• journalist
• jail
• prison
• ayatollah
• monatzeri
• BBC