Six lawyers and civil activists arrested in Iran
An informed source told VOA that four lawyers and two civil society activists were arrested by security forces in Tehran on Saturday and taken to an unknown location.
An informed source, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told VOA that on Saturday, August 13, Arash Kaykhosravi, Mostafa Nili, Mohammadreza Faghihi, and Leila Heydari, four lawyers, and Mehdi Mahmoudian and Maryam Afrafaraz, two civil society activists, were arrested by police.
This informed source further stated that the reason for the arrest of these individuals was their attempt to file a complaint against some officials of the Islamic Republic following the spread of the coronavirus, adding that prior to the arrest, the authorities had contacted some of these lawyers and civil activists and pressured them not to take any action.
According to this informed person, some of these people were able to make phone calls to their families on Saturday after their arrest, and they were reportedly given an initial promise of release.
On Sunday, August 14, Mostafa Daneshjo, a lawyer in Iran, announced the release of Leila Heidari, one of the arrested lawyers, by posting a text on Twitter, writing: "We are still waiting for news of the release of the others."
Saeed Dehghan, another lawyer, also tweeted on Saturday, noting that these lawyers and civil activists had intended to file a complaint against the responsible authorities following the escalation of the coronavirus in Iran: "Arrest before filing a complaint is a sign of the growing fear of litigation."
Before this arrest, civil activist Mehdi Mahmoudian criticized the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran for saying that "Corona is not such a big disaster," and wrote on Twitter: "The daily massacre of more than 500 people and the waste of thousands of billions of people's money are the result of this wise strategy of his, their trust in Russia and China and the flatterers around them, and their insistence on domestic vaccine production."
On Sunday, August 14, the death toll from the coronavirus was reported to have exceeded 600.
Source: Voice of America
