From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Iranian cartoonist jailed for mocking MPs released
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAn Iranian cartoonist imprisoned over portraying lawmakers as animals to criticize a draft law restricting contraception and criminalizing voluntary sterilization was released from prison Tuesday, her lawyer says.
Atena Farghadani left Evin prison and embraced her mother. A photograph showed her smiling with a wreath of flowers around her neck.
Farghadani’s lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, says she was released after an appeals court last month reduced her initial 12-year prison sentence to 18 months.
“I am very happy that she and her parents reunited,” Moghimi tells The Associated Press.
Farghadani was imprisoned amid a wider crackdown by hard-liners targeting free expression in Iran. Poets, filmmakers and journalists have been charged and imprisoned.
— AP
The Times of Israel Community.