News of Abdollah Momeni’s release on the heavy bail of approximately $800,000 makes it appear that the Judiciary is setting ransoms and not bails. In fact most of the political prisoners released on bail over the past few months appear to be hostages of the judicial system due to the unreasonably high bail amounts they have had to post. Some of the bail amounts set are higher than the prisoner’s estimated earnings in 100 years. Presently hundreds of political, student, and civil society activists and journalists who have been released on heavy bails are either waiting for their sentences to be carried out or are facing new problems caused by their bail amount.

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Fazlollah Arab Sorkhi, a member of the Islamic Mujahedin Organization, received a bail order set of approximately $1 million. Behzad Nabavi, also a member of the Islamic Mujahedin Organization and former Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, was released on an $800,000 bail last November. Even student activist Peyman Aref faced a $100,000 bail. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran requests the Iranian Judiciary to end the trend of heavy and unreasonable bails, which is against Iranian law, and end the abuse and harassment of families of political prisoners.

Iranian Judiciary authorities, who under pressure from public opinion have no other choice but to release hundreds of individuals baselessly arrested after the elections, have either been issuing heavy sentences for political prisoners in trials which lack even the most basic elements of international standards for fair and objective courts, or they have been issuing disproportionately heavy bail amounts.

Many political prisoners whose bail has been set at amounts ten times larger than their financial capability, use help from their friends, family, and relatives to raise bail. But because bail amounts sometimes remain at the Judiciary for years without a final court ever convening, families face serious problems in this area.