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Marcus Hellwig (born 26 November 1965 in
Associated Press, 5 February 2012
The Price for Illicit Journalism
20 February 2012 after a visit by German Foreign Minister
Marcus Hellwig (born 26 November 1965 in Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "'' Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...
) is a German journalist working for the weekly ''BILD am Sonntag
''Bild am Sonntag'' (''BamS'') is the largest-selling German national Sunday newspaper published in Berlin, Germany.
History and profile
''Bild am Sonntag'' was first published on 29 April 1956.Helmut Böger, ''Bild'', 8 May 2011Die Story von Ba ...
''. In October 2010 he was arrested together with his partner Jens Koch in Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...
after trying to interview death row prisoner Sakineh Ashtiani
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani ( fa, سکینه محمدی آشتیانی; born 1967) is an Iranian Azeri woman convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and adultery. She gained international notoriety for originally being sentenced to death by ston ...
’s son, and was held in prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
for nearly five months.German journalist says he was beaten during 5 months as a prisoner in IranAssociated Press, 5 February 2012
Iranian interview case
Arrest
One day before their arrest, Hellwig and Koch had entered Iran on tourist visas, planning to investigate the case ofSakineh Ashtiani
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani ( fa, سکینه محمدی آشتیانی; born 1967) is an Iranian Azeri woman convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and adultery. She gained international notoriety for originally being sentenced to death by ston ...
, who had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Without the permission of Iranian authorities and in violation of Iranian media law
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...
, they arranged to meet Ashtiani's lawyer and her son, Sadjad Qaderzadeh, for an interview, which was held in Tabriz in the northwestern region of Iranian Azerbaijan. After only a few questions, Iranian authorities intervened and arrested Hellwig and Koch as well as Ashtiani's lawyer and her son.
Charges by Iranian judiciary
Hellwig and Koch were suspected of having planned the operation withMina Ahadi
Mina Ahadi ( fa, مینا احدی, Minâ Ahadi, born 1956) is an Iranian-Austrian political activist. As a Communist political activist, she is a member of the Central Committee and Politburo of the Worker-communist Party of Iran.
Advocacy
Min ...
who was engaged via a regular telephone connection in the interview and served as a translator for the two Germans. Ahadi was convicted for terrorism in Iran for her past involvement with the Kurdish Komalah Komala may refer to:
* Komala (Pokémon), a Gen VII Normal-type ''Pokémon'' species introduced in ''Pokémon Sun and Moon''
* Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, a Kurdish political party led by Abdullah Mohtadi
* Komalah (CPI), a Kurdish political ...
forces. Cooperation with her was considered an act against the national security of Iran by the judiciary. The two were sentenced to 20 months in prison on charges on “acting against national security” by "committing unspecified acts".
On January 1, 2011, Sakineh Ashtiani announced in a press conference that she intended to sue the two German journalist for illegally interviewing her son about her case.
Release
The two journalists were freed February 20, 2011 and their sentences commuted to fines of $50,000 each.20 February 2012
Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay pers ...
to Tehran for a rare meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدینژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),
. Westerwelle returned to Germany with the pair on his government plane.
A year after being released, Hellwig told readers of his tabloid that he "was regularly beaten and constantly interrogated" during the first 10 “brutal” days in captivity until a German diplomat intervened on their behalf. Iranian interrogators sometimes "claimed that I was a spy, then allegedly a terrorist,” he said. According to Hellwig, he and Koch could hear torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
victims throughout the day from their prison cell. “The cries were horrible.”
See also
*List of foreign nationals detained in Iran
Since the Iran hostage crisis, the Islamic Republic of Iran has engaged in a pattern of detaining foreign nationals for extended periods. Dual nationals of Iran and another country are particularly vulnerable to arbitrary detention because the i ...
References