Iran Reformist Freed; Another Is Sentenced

Reformist cleric Mohsen Kadivar, a leading theoretician of Iran’s Islamic modernist movement, has been released from jail after serving 18 months for political and religious dissent.

But Iranian newspapers Monday quoted him as saying his release was temporary and that he expected new charges from the same clerical court that convicted him in 1998.

Iran’s hard-line Press Court, meanwhile, sentenced Emadeddin Baqi, an associate of Kadivar, to 5 1/2 years in prison for threatening national security and inciting public opinion, the official IRNA news agency said. It was not immediately clear when the sentencing occurred.

Baqi, an author and journalist advocating pluralism and greater tolerance, was a regular contributor to many of Iran’s once-flourishing and now mostly banned reformist newspapers.

Kadivar was convicted of engaging in propaganda and inciting public opinion.