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Four activists from the youth branch of the reformist Islamic Participation Front have been detained after they were summoned to a resident court in Evin prison. According to opposition website Rahesabz, prison officials cited “plan[s] to hold certain meetings” as the reason of their arrest. The four detained members are Hadi Heidari, Fatemeh Arab-Sorkhi, Mohammad Shafiyi and Alireza Taheri.
Labour activist, Reza Shahabi remains in custody despite the payment of bail USD 100,000 by his family. Shahabi, who was detained on 12 June, was due to be released on 11 October but two months on he has still not been Evin prison. In protest to his circumstances, he began a dry hunger strike on 4 December. In an interview with the International campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Shahabi’s wife, Zohreh Rezaei, has expressed grave concern for his well being.
The Iranian authorities have arrested former journalist Mehran Faraji, and Reyhaneh Tabatabaei, Shargh newspaper’s political correspondent. Last week, four other workers from the reformist newspaper, Ahamd Gholami, Farzaneh Roostayi, Keyvan Mehrgan, Ali Khodabakhsh, were detained. Iran currently holds more journalists in prison that any other country in the world.
Security authorities raided into the office of reformist newspaper Shargh on 7 December and detained journalists Keyvan Mehregan, Farzaneh Roostayi and Ahamad Gholami, along with chief editor Ali Khodabakhsh. According to reformist website Kaleme, the authorities also physically checked the staff’s mobile phones. The raid coincided with national student day which brought student protests across university campuses in the country.