Detained members of the Democratic Front of Iran released; no news of Sattar Beheshti's family
Seven members of the Democratic Front of Iran who were arrested on Wednesday evening while attending the grave of Sattar Beheshti in Robat Karim were released, but there is still no news about the three arrested members of the Beheshti family.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Front of Iran announced in a statement that Secretary General Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and Yasmine Hanifeh, Esmaeil Muftizadeh, Mohammadreza Khosravi, Parviz Safri, Arash Soleimani, and Ali Rostami, members of this political organization, were "violently" arrested by "plainclothes forces" while attending the grave of Sattar Beheshti and transferred to the Robat Karim Security Department.
HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists Association in Iran, has confirmed the release of members of the Democratic Front of Iran on Thursday, November 4.
Following the follow-up by the Voice of America Persian Service, human rights activist Arash Sadeghi said that there is no information about the whereabouts of the Sattar Beheshti family, nor the agency that is detaining them.
According to the report, a relative of the Beheshti family has contacted the Rabat-e Karim security police, "but they have not responded to him."
Thursday, November 4, marks the ninth anniversary of the death of Sattar Beheshti in prison. The worker and blogger was arrested on November 29, 2012, and his body was returned to his family by the Islamic Republic's judicial authorities on November 6.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the then Attorney General of the country and current head of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, confirmed the presence of bruises on five parts of Sattar Beheshti's body.
On Thursday, an hour after his release, Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, Secretary General of the Democratic Front of Iran, spoke to the Persian service of the Voice of America, explaining how the members of this front were arrested. He said about the reason for the arrest of the Sattar Beheshti family that the authorities of the Islamic Republic "were and are concerned that protests would start again on Sattar Beheshti's anniversary, and out of fear that people would not take action, they brutally arrested Sattar's mother and sister."
Also, Amnesty International wrote in a statement an hour ago: "Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Gohar Eshghi and her family, who were arrested following the commemoration of Sattar Beheshti and her justice-seeking activities on November 12."
The statement, published on Amnesty International's Twitter account, described the arrest of Gohar Eshghi and her family as an "illegal and arbitrary" measure that "once again exposes the crisis of impunity in Iran."
Amnesty International also stated that in Iran, “the lack of accountability for cases of torture and killings in custody is consistently accompanied by harassment of grieving relatives seeking justice.”
Source: Voice of America
