In an open letter, about 900 Iranian writers appealed to the country’s judicial sentences against three members of the Iranian Writers Association based on vague anti-state charges.
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HERANA) on Sunday published this letter, which was signed by 894 Iranian authors.
Bektash Abtin, Reza Khandan Mahabadi, and Keyvan Bazhan are sentenced to six years in prison each on charge of “propagation against the regime.”
The authors, poets, literary critics, and Iranian journalists in a letter addressing judicial and executive officials expressed their “strong protest” over what they call “unfairness of judicial procedures against the authors.”
“The freedom of thought and the right of civil gatherings are the fundamental rights of every free and alive nation,” the letter reads.
“One of the basic demands of the 1979 revolution was the elimination of censorship and establishment of a free journalistic, cultural, and intellectual atmosphere,” added the writers, referring to the Islamic Revolution back in 1979 that led to the establishment of the current Iranian regime.
“We urgently demand the unconditional elimination of charges against these three Iranian writers,” they continued.
In a separate statement, Iranian Writers Association said the verdict of the judiciary is not limited to these three writers, but it is a sentence against all of those who are struggling for freedom of expression.
