Iranian Journalist Investigating Killings of Dissidents Is Arrested

A journalist investigating the 1998 killings of five dissidents by intelligence agents was arrested Saturday, the latest attempt by Islamic hard-liners to curb Iran’s liberal press.

Akbar Ganji’s arrest came as newspaper editors and publishers complained to the culture minister after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned the reformist press as “enemies” of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Islamic hard-liners, who control the judiciary, have been cracking down on a liberal press that has flourished since reformist President Mohammad Khatami won election in 1997.

Khatami, who rarely speaks out directly on the power struggle with hard-liners, made one of his strongest condemnations yet against opponents of liberalization.

“Those who say that reforms are against the principles of the revolution are pushing society toward ruin and creating the grounds for dictatorship,” Khatami said.

Nearly every leading reformist journalist has been summoned to court for questioning in recent weeks, as conservatives in the clerical regime find themselves hard-pressed after the reformists’ overwhelming victory in February’s parliamentary elections.

Ganji was arrested in court, where he was to answer charges that his articles violated press laws, his lawyer said. Sources said Ganji was taken straight to prison.

“This is the price I have to pay,” Ganji told reporters as he headed into court. “But the future is bright. No one created the reforms, and nobody can stop them.”

Ganji had been reporting on the killings of five pro-reform dissidents that the Intelligence Ministry later blamed on “rogue agents.” His articles suggested that the killings had been ordered by senior hard-liners in the Islamic establishment.

The two judges who ordered Ganji’s arrest also cited his attendance at a controversial Berlin conference about Iran, Ganji’s lawyer said. The conference provoked outrage in conservative circles after broadcasts showed an Iranian woman dancing and other participants chanting slogans against Iran.