TEHRAN The Special Court for the Clergy which has the jurisdiction to try clerics, slapped a four-month jail term on a journalist cleric and stripped him of his clerical cloak, the Iran Student News Agency (ISNA) reported Saturday.

It said that Ali Afsahi, chief-editor of the Cinema-Sport weekly is charged with insulting sanctities and desecration of clerics.

He was sent to Evin Prison, while, the judge in the case, had allowed him to appeal the case.

Afsahi, a specialist in Iranian cinema, was charged over a speech he gave on the topic in September which the court ruled had "insulted and defamed the clergy," ISNA said.

More than 25 newspapers and journals have been closed down by the Judiciary since April, and at least a dozen journalists, editors and publishers have been jailed.

(IRNA)