Mehdi Khazali was arrested.
Mehdi Khazali was arrested in front of his office by Revolutionary Guard officers.
He has announced that from the moment of his arrest he will refuse to eat or drink and will go on a hunger strike.
On Wednesday, February 13, at a meeting of the Writers' House, Khazali read out a statement: "On February 22, we will not come out of our homes and we will not become the blackness of the enemy army! We will not come to the streets to approve murder and looting, crime and misdeeds, ignorance and stupidity, imprisonment and captivity. On February 22, we will stay home out of respect for freedom and democracy so that autocrats and monopolists, looters and plunderers, thieves and embezzlers are left alone on the streets. So that the people will recognize the mercenary group - who have sat on the broad table of the revolution and have eaten "even when the truth has been reached" -."
Another part of the statement states: "For years, they have been exploiting the presence of the people to their advantage. They used a thousand tricks to get people onto the streets and then exploited everyone for their own benefit, and they called this presence an endorsement and allegiance! They used puppets, puppet shows, street performances, and actors as tools to get people onto the streets and then exploit everyone at once!"
It seems that the anger of some security layers in the Islamic Republic over this call led to the arrest of Mehdi Khazali.
It is still unclear which security facility Khazali has been transferred to.
Khazali previously confirmed in an audio file that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani died by drowning and criticized the doctors at Tajrish Martyrs Hospital for not transferring the body to the forensic medicine department and issuing a death certificate under pressure from the judiciary.
Mehdi Khazali is an Iranian physician (ophthalmologist), son of the late Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali, director of Hayyan Publishing House and founder of the Abasaleh Cultural Publishing House.
In recent years, Mehdi Khazali has been arrested several times and has repeatedly gone on hunger strike to protest against the injustice and lack of adherence to due process in the judicial system. He has been on hunger strike for a total of 285 days on seven occasions.
Supplementary news
Dr. Mehdi Khazali has been transferred to Ward 350 (general ward) of Evin Prison after his arrest.
This section of Evin Prison belongs to the judiciary.
Khazali has begun his hunger strike today and has blamed the Revolutionary Guards for his arrest.
