"Free Mojtaba and Arash!"
Rainy Day is proud to add its voice to this global day of action dedicated to freeing two bloggers, Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, currently imprisoned in Iran. Those of us fortunate to live in tolerant societies cannot begin to imagine the horror of living under a regime that despises free expression and savagely penalizes those who speak their minds. The persecution of Arash Sigarchi, author of the blog "Panhjareh Eltehab", illustrates the terror that the mullahs are now perpetrating. On 17 January he received a summons from the intelligence ministry in the northern Iranian city of Rashat. He was then arrested and since then he's been held at Rashat's Lakan Prison. Along with being denied the right to see a lawyer, his bail has been set at the exorbitant sum of 200 million rials ($25,000).
Life for bloggers across the border in Syria is equally oppressive. Ammar Abdulhamid, who writes Ammar has been detained for questioning by the authorities three times in the last few four weeks because of his viewpoints. Regarding his brush with the law on Monday, 14 February, he wrote: "I just survived another round of dubiously curt and polite investigation by the Military Security Directorate. This promises to be the last such session with this particular Directorate. But it seems obvious now that other security branches will be jumping into the fray soon."
Ammar Abdulhamid is a member of the advisory board of The Committee to Protect Bloggers, which has organized the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day". Our best wishes go to them and our thoughts are with all those who are being abused, imprisoned and harassed by tyrannical regimes.
