• Text size  | | |
• Email this document
• Printable version

Predators of Press Freedom: Iran - Ali Khamenei

Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ruled Iran since the death of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, in 1989. He has been consolidating his predecessor's ultra-conservative policies for more than 20 years and controls all the country's political and judicial institutions.

As Supreme Leader, he is responsible for the continuing crackdown on journalists and others since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection on 12 June 2009. His virulent and inflammatory criticism of media with international links has fuelled the rage of government bodies carrying out the repression. He explicitly agreed to the judicial system staging show trials of journalists in August 2009 and January 2010 and giving journalists and bloggers heavy prison terms and sometimes death sentences. The Revolutionary Guards, commanded by Khamenei, control Teheran's Evin prison so he is directly responsible for the torture and other abuses of journalists and bloggers jailed there. Many are held in sections 209 and 240 without being officially registered and in flagrant violation of international law. Reporters Without Borders accuses Khamenei of crimes against humanity.

Topics: Freedom of information, Freedom of expression,