IRANIAN DEATH PENALTY DISSIDENT RETURNS TO JAIL

an award-winning Iranian journalist and rights activist was due to return to prison after being allowed three months' leave because of illness, his lawyer said. The return to jail of Emadeddin Baghi, who heads a prisoners' rights group and has openly campaigned against the death penalty in Iran, came just a week after he was awarded a major journalism prize in Britain. Baghi was hospitalised in December with a nervous condition after being arrested in October 2007 on charges of spreading propaganda against Iran's Islamic system and publishing secret documents. He has been an outspoken critic of Iran's increased use of the death penalty and one of very few in the country willing to publicly voice opposition to capital punishment.