TEHRAN: Iran has sentenced award-winning journalist Emadeddin Baghi to a year in prison and banned him from political activities for five years, an opposition website reported.
Baghi, who is also a well-known human rights activist, has been "sentenced to one year in prison and banned from political activities for five years after a two-year trial for forming a group defending the rights of prisoners," the Rahesabz website said.
Baghi is awaiting a second trial on charges leveled by the intelligence ministry over his appearance in an interview with late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri broadcast by the BBC Persian service, the report said.
He was arrested on December 28, a day after opposition protests during a Shia religious festival saw eight people killed in one of the deadliest crackdowns on anti-government demonstrators.
He was released on bail in June.
Baghi has been campaigning against the death penalty and won the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for human rights activism in 2009.
