News on the status of 4 political prisoners

Iran Press News: Ali-Akbar Mouavi-Khoini the representative of the sixth Islamic parliament and secretary general of Tahkim Vahdat (fostering unity)* was arrested during the Monday, June 12th gathering for women’s rights and for the repealing of the Islamic regime’s misogynist laws. Now after 126 days, he is still in the infamous ward 209 of Evin prison which is overseen by the torturers and agents of the ministry of intelligence and security. He has not as of yet been permitted to meet with his lawyer and the status of case remain quite unclear. Reports also indicate that he is still under severe pressure and constant interrogations.

Mousavi-Khoini was the first member of parliament to follow up on the various political prisoners cases and he would conduct regular inspections of ward 209; he was also the first person ever to broach the issue of the imprisoned student leaders in his meetings with the Supreme leader, Mullah Khamenei.

Keyvan Rafeie, a human rights activist was arrested on July 9th, this year in the area of Tehran University and now with the passage 99 days, he too still remains in ward 209. Like Mousavi-Khoini he has also been barred from meeting with his defense attorney and his charges are still unclear.

Rafeie went on hunger strike 17 days ago and has since not been allowed contact with his family; their attempts to visit him have also been blocked.

Imprisoned student leader, Ahmad Batebi was one of the detainees of the 1999 student uprising which was quashed by Mullah Mohammad Khatami. It had been a years that he was out of prison on medical furlough but on July 29th of this year, as he was leaving his house with his wife, he was re-arrested.

Last week the regime had agreed to release him on a $55,000 bail. When his wife Somayeh Beenot appeared in court to pledge the bail, the mullah judge in charge of the case announced that he had changed his mind and that the only way Batebi would be released would be if the Batebi family pledged $100,000. The Batebi family has not as of yet been able to come up with that sum and Ahmad, like Mousavi-Khoini and Rafeie remains in ward 209.

Kianoosh Sanjari, esteemed activist, blogger and member of the united student front was arrested on October 6th when he went to prepare a report about the clashes occurring around the area of the residence of Ayatollah Kazemeini-Boroujerdi; he was arrested along with the demonstrators and it has been a full week since his arrest and so far, there is no information on his whereabouts. It is believed that like the above-mentioned political prisoners he too is being detained in the same ward.

It is worth mentioning that Kianoosh was the first to provide Iran Press news with on-going detailed reports on the clashes between supporters of Ayatollah Kazemeini-Boroujerdi and the Islamic regime’s security forces.

* The Office of Fostering Unity, known in Farsi as Tahkim Vahdat, is the largest student organization in Iran which has mainly been a university students' organization. It was formed to support the rule of Ruhollah Khomeini. Tahkim Vahdat became one of the most vocal critics of hardliners in Iran and promoted a pro-reformist stance, supporting Khatami. Since the failure of the so-called reformists, at present the organization works at promote secularism, though many of its governing members are "nationalist religionists," meaning that they believe in the separation of religion and state though they remain faithful Muslims.