Akbar Ganji

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Akbar Ganji

Akbar Ganji ( Persian اکبر گنجی Akbar-e Gandschī , English Ganji , French Gandji , [ ækʲˈbær gʲænˈʤiː ]; Born January 31, 1960 in Qazvin ) is an Iranian journalist, writer, sociologist and one of the most famous critics of the regime in Iran .

Life

During the Iranian Revolution in 1979 Akbar Ganji was a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard , at times bodyguard of the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini . According to his information, he stayed in Japan from 1985 to 1987, and from 1987 to 1990 he worked as a cultural attaché in Turkey.

He studied sociology and, after Mohammad Chātami became President of Iran on August 3, 1997 and he received a license for his weekly magazine Rah-e no (New Way) on December 6, 1997, he excelled with writings critical of the regime. Ganji previously worked on the editorial staff of Keyhan magazine and called for the separation of religion and politics. The magazine, which was banned in 1998, was an important mouthpiece for the Iranian reform-minded intellectuals and the in-house newspaper of co-founder Abdolkarim Sorusch .

In March 2000, the newspaper's executive director, Said Hajjarian , an adviser to President Chātami, was seriously wounded by a shot in the head. After the ban on Rah-e-no , the magazine Sobh-e emruz (This morning) was founded.

During the conference "Iran after the elections", which was organized in Berlin in April 2000 with Iranian participants under the auspices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and which was censored but also broadcast on Iranian television, Ganji appeared with his papers, which are known in Iran effective publicity in the West.

Works

  • Fascist Concepts of Religion and State , published in 1999, earned him a prison term. In this publication, according to his statements, he represented the theory of Islamic fascism , such as
"A fascist theory is tinkered out of a religion and then sold to the people as Islam ..." . The term Islam-Fascism, which Ganji first mentioned in 1986, was used by Khomeini opponents as early as March 1979 during the Iranian revolution .
  • The Gray Eminence (1998)
  • The Red Eminence (1998)
  • The Darkroom of Ghosts (1999).

In these books, Ganji, together with Said Hajjarian , uncovered the connection between the contract killings , the allegedly around 80 so-called chain murders that took place between 1989 and 1997 against numerous Iranian opposition members and the highest government agencies. Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni , the secret service minister Fallahian and the thugs around Mesbah Yazdi were heavily incriminated by Ganji, supported by Abbas Abdi , the owner of an opinion research institute.

aftermath

Because of his appearance in Berlin, charges were brought against Ganji after his return to Iran and brought to justice. Ganji during the trial:

I am proud because I am in prison for defending freedom, human rights, freedom of thought and expression. I have nothing more to say.

On January 13, 2001, Ganji was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment plus 5 years in exile, also for attending this conference

  • Activities against national security
  • Propaganda against the Islamic state order
  • Insulting Islamic shrines, rejection of Islamic dress codes
  • Insult to Imam Khomeini
  • Collection of confidential files and documents
  • Spreading falsehoods for the purpose of rioting

convicted, the sentence was reduced to 6 years at the appeal hearing. Ganji was released from custody on March 18, 2006, also because of his life-threatening condition after a week-long hunger strike .

Not only human rights organizations, the international writers' association PEN , but also the European Union and the US government have campaigned for the release of Akbar Ganji.

On August 2, 2005, Judge Massud Moghaddas, who had been sentenced as presiding judge, by Gandschi and six other people who had participated in the conference of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, was shot dead by an assassin.

Awards

On June 5, 2006, Ganji received the Golden Pen of Freedom Award , a media prize from the World Association of Newspapers . The Martin Ennals Award followed on October 11, 2006 . On October 8, 2007 Gandschi received the Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media from the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig . In 2010 Ganji was named Hero of the Freedom of the World Press by the International Press Institute in Vienna . This recognized his courage in the struggle for justice and freedom of the press.

Ganji's texts

literature

  • Iran after the Elections: A Conference and the Consequences. Heinrich Böll Foundation. Münster 2001. - ISBN 3-89691-506-1
  • Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. From the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006 (English original edition: London 2004), pp. 279 f., 292–305, 310 f. and 329-334

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. From the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006 (English original edition: London 2004), p. 294
  2. ↑ Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. From the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006 (English original edition: London 2004), p. 310 f. and 329-334
personal data
SURNAME Ganji, Akbar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ganji, Akbar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian journalist, dissident and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Qazvin