Seven Detained Members of Iran Democratic Front Released; No News of Setayesh Beheshti Family Members
Seven members of the Iran Democratic Front who were arrested Wednesday evening while visiting Sattar Beheshti’s grave in Rayy were released, but three family members of Beheshti remain unaccounted for.
On Wednesday, the Iran Democratic Front announced in a statement that Hashmatolah Tabarzadi, the organization’s secretary general, along with members Yasmin Hanifeh, Ismail Moftizadeh, Mohammad Reza Khosravi, Parviz Safari, Arash Soleimani, and Ali Rostami were arrested “violently” by “plainclothes forces” while visiting Sattar Beheshti’s grave and were transferred to the Ray Security Office.
Hana, the news agency of the Iranian Human Rights Activists Network, confirmed the release of Iran Democratic Front members on Thursday, November 13. According to the report, the members were released on that date.
Following up on this report, Aresh Sadeghi, a human rights activist, told Voice of America’s Persian Service that there is no information about the whereabouts of Sattar Beheshti’s family members or the agency detaining them.
According to the report, a relative of the Beheshti family contacted the Ray Police Security Office, “but received no response.”
Thursday, November 13 marks the ninth anniversary of Sattar Beheshti’s death in prison. The worker and blogger was arrested on November 9, 2012, and his body was handed over to his family by the Islamic Republic’s judicial authorities on November 16.
Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, the then-prosecutor general of the country and current head of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s judiciary, had confirmed the existence of bruises in five areas of Sattar Beheshti’s body.
Hashmatolah Tabarzadi, secretary general of the Iran Democratic Front, spoke to Voice of America’s Persian Service on Thursday shortly after his release, describing how members of the front were arrested. Regarding the reasons for the detention of Sattar Beheshti’s family, he said that Islamic Republic officials “were concerned that activities might resume on Sattar’s anniversary and out of fear that people might act, they brutally arrested Sattar’s mother and sister.”
Meanwhile, Amnesty International stated earlier in a statement: “Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Gohar Eshghi and her family, who were arrested on November 12 in commemoration of Sattar Beheshti and in pursuit of justice-seeking activities.”
In this statement published on Amnesty International’s Twitter account, the detention of Gohar Eshghi and her family is described as an “illegal and arbitrary” measure that “once again reveals the crisis of impunity in Iran.”
Amnesty International also stated that in Iran, “the lack of accountability for torture and extrajudicial killings in detention is constantly accompanied by harassment and persecution of families seeking justice.”
Source: Voice of America
