Campaign Backs Student Photographer Arrested Over Protest Pix

By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL

More than 70 award winning Iranian university graduates have called for the release of one of their friends and colleagues, photographer Hamed Saber, who was jailed approximately one month ago apparently over pictures he took at last year's street demonstrations protesting the reelection of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

They say Saber, the winner of  a Bronze medal in an international  scientific competition, had the possibility to emigrate but he preferred to stay in Iran and work for its "independence and economic progress." The statement calls on Iranian leaders to give Saber a fair trial. 

University Students from Gothenburg, Sweden, protest the arrest of Iranian students and political activists at a December 2009 demonstration.

"We call on the country's [officials] to respect each other's ideas and create such conditions where all people particularly experts can freely play a role in the country's progress."

The group say in a statement posted on a newly launched blog 'freehamedsaber' that Saber, a graduate in computer science from one of Iran's top universities (Sharif University), is a bright and religious young man who didn't have ties to any political group or organization. 

Here are  links to some of the pictures Saber had taken from the post-election events, which he posted on his flickr and picasa web pages under his real name

His photos were posted and used by many publications and websites. One of Saber's photos reportedly made the front cover of the German magazine "Der Spiegel"