Investigative Reporter Gets 10-Year Sentence

Iran’s leading investigative journalist has been sentenced in Tehran to 10 years in prison for attending a conference in Germany that authorities said harmed Iran’s image, his lawyer said. Akbar Ganji was among 16 people tried on charges of “undermining Iran’s security” for participating in the conference last year on reforms in Iran. Before his arrest in April, Ganji had written articles suggesting that senior hard-liners in the government had ordered the killings of five pro-reform writers in 1998. Authorities have blamed “rogue agents” for the slayings.