Marcus Hellwig


Marcus Hellwig is a German journalist working for the weekly BILD am Sonntag. In October 2010 he was arrested together with his partner Jens Koch in Iran after trying to interview death row prisoner Sakineh Ashtiani’s son, and was held in prison for nearly five months.

Iranian interview case

Arrest

One day before their arrest, Hellwig and Koch had entered Iran on tourist visas, planning to investigate the case of Sakineh Ashtiani, who had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. They arranged to meet Ashtiani's lawyer and her son, Sadjad Qaderzadeh, for an interview, which was to be held in Tabriz in the northwestern region of Iranian Azerbaijan. After only a few questions, Iranian authorities intervened and arrested Hellwig and Koch as well as Ashtiani's lawyer and her son.
According to a spokesman of the judiciary, authorities were warned by a person close to Ashtiani's family, who became suspicious about the foreigners' visit.

Charges by Iranian judiciary

Hellwig and Koch were suspected of having planned the operation with Mina Ahadi who was engaged via a regular telephone connection in the interview and served as a translator for the two Germans. Ahadi was convicted for terrorism in Iran for her past involvement with the Kurdish Komalah forces. Cooperation with her was considered an act against the national security of Iran by the judiciary. The two were sentenced to 20 months in prison on charges on “acting against national security” by "committing unspecified acts".
On January 1, 2011, Sakineh Ashtiani announced in a press conference that she intended to sue the two German journalist for illegally interviewing her son about her case.

Release

The two journalists were freed February 20, 2011 and their sentences commuted to fines of $50,000 each. after a visit by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Tehran for a rare meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Westerwelle returned to Germany with the pair on his government plane.
A year after being released, Hellwig told readers of his tabloid that he "was regularly beaten and constantly interrogated" during the first 10 “brutal” days in captivity until a German diplomat intervened on their behalf. Iranian interrogators sometimes "claimed that I was a spy, then allegedly a terrorist,” he said. According to Hellwig, he and Koch could hear torture victims throughout the day from their prison cell. “The cries were horrible.”