Former Iranian interior minister and reformist Abdollah Nuri who is serving a five-year jail term in Iran for "anti-Islamic propaganda" is to be released soon, his brother said in a report Sunday.
"My brother was already supposed to have been freed. I don't understand why he hasn't been, but he should be soon," MP Ali-Reza Nuri told the government daily Iran.
"Under article 38 of the Islamic penal code, when a prisoner has served half of his sentence, the courts can decide to free him. There is no reason for him to be kept in prison," he said.
Abdollah Nuri, a figure close to President Mohammad Khatami, was sentenced in November 1999 by Iran's special religious court, a body which the reformist camp wants abolished.
He was sent behind bars for his role as director of Khordad daily, one of several newspapers, which the conservative-dominated judiciary in the Islamic republic has suspended over the past three years. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
