TORONTO - Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was at his mother's home in Tehran on Sunday after being released on bail from prison, but his family said it's unclear whether the Newsweek reporter will be permitted to return home to his pregnant and ailing wife, scheduled to deliver in just over a week.
Agah Bahari, Maziar's 26-year-old nephew, said in a phone interview from his home in Vancouver that his family is cautiously optimistic about his uncle's return.
Maziar Bahari, 42, was freed from Tehran's Evin Prison after posting a bail of about $300,000 on Saturday.
A dual Iranian-Canadian citizen, he was arrested June 21 as part of the government's attempts to silence protests over the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Agah Bahari said he spoke with his mother in Tehran on Saturday and she told him that Bahari was there at his mother's home in Tehran and appeared to be doing well.
"He's fine," Bahari said. "But after 140 days in jail in Tehran, you're not going to be totally fine."
Bahari said his uncle was filling out paper work related to his release. He was reluctant to discuss further conditions of his uncle's release because his fate is still unclear and he didn't want to jeopardize a still tenuous reprieve.
"I can't talk about all the things right now because they're not secure, all we know is he was bailed out, he's out of jail."
Bahari said the family was uncertain that his uncle would be at the side of his wife, Paola Gourley, during her scheduled cesarean section Oct. 26., but hopes he'll be able to leave as soon as possible.
Agah Bahari last saw his uncle three years ago, but talked to him a few days before he was arrested about his plans to visit him in Canada.
Bahari said his uncle's imprisonment has been especially hard on his grandmother, Maziar's mother, because she had lost two of her children in the past few years, and had a third in jail.
Bahari is among more than 100 prisoners put on mass trial in August, accused of being part of an opposition plot to foment a "velvet revolution" to topple Iran's clerical leaders on orders from its foreign enemies.
Many defendants delivered courtroom confessions admitting to their roles, which the opposition says were coerced.
In his turn at the stand, Bahari said western media had attempted to guide events in Iran following the election and he sought mercy from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Bahari's family and colleagues said his comments likely came under duress. Like other defendants, he has had no access to a lawyer and no specific charges have been announced against him.
Agah Bahari said he didn't know whether his uncle was released on humanitarian ground, or if Gourley's pleas, diplomatic negotiations, or public petitions and activism pressured the government to release Bahari. "All I care is that he's out, I don't care why."
Like thousands of others, Agah Bahari emailed the Canadian government and joined a mass online effort that included a 3,000-strong Facebook group and other petitions to seek his freedom.
He said he didn't know how his family could afford the $300,000 bail, but believed his uncle's vocal supporters would help.
NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who have been vocal in calls for Bahari's freedom, were also cautiously celebrating Bahari's release Sunday.
Layton, who represents the Toronto riding Bahari lived in, said he was "thankful there appears to be a happy resolution so far."
"Stories like this don't always have a happy ending," he added.
Layton called Bahari's imprisonment "an attack on freedom of the press," and said he looks forward to hearing Bahari's account of his time in jail so Canadians might learn more about the "freedoms we cherish."
Layton also said he will work with the family to determine what kind of support they might need, especially given the news of his wife's difficult pregnancy.
Layton added that he hoped Gourley's "touching plea" contributed to her husband's release and believed that anyone who heard it would be moved by it.
McTeague, who has spent the last four months lobbying for Bahari's release, said while he welcomes news Bahari is out bail, he will redouble efforts to ensure the man will be reunited with his wife as soon as possible.
"There's no doubt as to Maziar's position in Iran, he was there simply as a journalist for Newsweek, and we call upon Iranians to take the next step and that is to free him from the country," he said.
