Ali Akbar Saidi-Sirjani, a writer in his late 60s/early 70s, was arrested on 14 March 1994. He is believed to be held incommunicado. Recent reports in the Iranian press allege that he was arrested for, and has confessed to, using drugs, making alcoholic beverages, homsexual acts, links with espionage networks and receiving money from “counter-revolutionary” circles in the West. Some of the above charges carry the death penalty. Ali Akbar Saidi-Sirjani, a well-known poet, essayist and satirist, has openly criticized government censorship in Iran.
