Arrest of Political Prisoner’s Brother in Front of Parliament; Reza Shahabi’s Detention Extended
News and human rights sources have reported that the detention order of Reza Shahabi, a member of the Tehran Bus Company Workers’ Syndicate, has been extended for another month. Meanwhile, Rasoul Bagheri, brother of political prisoner Vahid Bagheri whose physical condition has been reported as critical following a hunger strike, was arrested in front of the Parliament building.
According to the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company Workers’ Syndicate, the detention order of Reza Shahabi, a member of the syndicate’s board of directors who was arrested on the 22nd of Ordibehesht, has been extended for another month.
Rababe Rezaei, Reza Shahabi’s wife, visited the Evin Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday, the 22nd of Khordad to follow up on his condition. Officials told her that “investigations are not complete” and his detention order has also been extended for another month.
The Bus Company Workers’ Syndicate, noting that Mr. Shahabi is imprisoned in Ward 209 of Evin with underlying medical conditions and his blood pressure “constantly fluctuates between 16 to 18” and “regularly the left side of his body and face become numb,” has expressed “severe concern” about his condition and called for his unconditional release as well as Hassan Saeidi, another imprisoned member of the syndicate.
In another report, Arash Sadeghi, a human rights activist in Iran, announced the arrest of Rasoul Bagheri, the brother of Vahid Bagheri, a political prisoner.
According to Mr. Sadeghi, the family of this political prisoner staged a sit-in in front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Parliament) on Sunday morning, the 22nd of Khordad to protest the judicial authorities’ disregard for “Vahid’s critical condition during his hunger strike,” but security forces arrested his brother with “violent force.”
Members of Vahid Bagheri’s family held papers at the sit-in that read: “Greetings Commander, I am a child of the 1990s whose father remained in prison” and “Greetings Commander, I am a helpless woman left with a three-year-old breadwinner in prison.”
Vahid Bagheri is among the prisoners of the November 2019 uprising held in Tehran’s Greater Prison and has requested conditional release, which according to law he becomes eligible for after 20 months of imprisonment, but judicial authorities have not approved his request.
Mr. Bagheri is now on his 38th day of hunger strike.
Source: Voice of America
