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Akbar Ganji
Iran's most prominent dissident journalist Akbar Ganji has been freed from jail after five years.
Ganji was jailed in 2001 for writing articles in which he linked senior officials to the murder of dissidents.
Correspondents say he is a hero to Iran's reformists for standing up to hardliners, and many world leaders have called for his release.
He has spent much of his jail term in solitary confinement and went on hunger strike for several months last year.
When brought to court to stand trial, Ganji complained he had been beaten but he says he was then threatened for revealing it.
The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says many Iranians thought Ganji, 46, would never be freed from jail, even though his sentence was due to end.
The release comes days before the United Nations Security Council is due to discuss Iran's stand-off with Western nations over the country's nuclear programme.
Ganji was jailed in 2001 for writing articles in which he linked senior officials to the murder of dissidents.
Correspondents say he is a hero to Iran's reformists for standing up to hardliners, and many world leaders have called for his release.
He has spent much of his jail term in solitary confinement and went on hunger strike for several months last year.
When brought to court to stand trial, Ganji complained he had been beaten but he says he was then threatened for revealing it.
The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says many Iranians thought Ganji, 46, would never be freed from jail, even though his sentence was due to end.
The release comes days before the United Nations Security Council is due to discuss Iran's stand-off with Western nations over the country's nuclear programme.
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