He spent nearly 18 months in prison for criticizing the arrest of three other bloggers:
Reporters Without Borders today welcomed the early release of blogger Mojtaba Saminejad, who was serving a combined sentence of two years and 10 months in prison. He was formally freed on 12 September but had in fact been on home leave since June. Arrested in February 2005, he spent nearly 18 months in prison for a few messages posted on his blog.
“The Iranian judicial system finally seems to have recognised that Saminejad did not deserve to be in prison, and we should welcome that,” the press freedom organisation said. “But Iran continues to be one of the few countries in the world that systematically jails Internet users who are overly critical of the political or religious authorities. We must not forget that Arash Sigarchi, another blogger who was imprisoned for ‘insulting the Supreme Guide,’ is still in jail.”
Saminejad was first arrested on 1 November 2004 for criticising the arrest of three fellow bloggers online. While held, his blog’s address was diverted to the website of a group of hackers linked to the Iranian radical Islamist movement Hezbollah. On leaving prison on 27 January 2005, he resumed his blog using a new address (http://8mdr8.blogspot.com), which led to his re-arrest a few days later.
Something to think about as Ahmadinejad prepares to address the U.N.