Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Ashkan Zahabian, jailed student activist in the Green movement and member of Tahkim-e Vahdat (Student-Alumni Association) was released on a 5-day furlough on July 16.
According to CHRR, in the morning of May 27, Security agents raided the home of Ashkan Zahabian’s parents in Babol and aggressively arrested him.
Zahabian was detained earlier in April 2011 when per a summons he showed up at the Sari Intelligence Office. His first arrest was in June 2009 only four days after the contested presidential election results, at a Mazandaran University student protest. He lost consciousness during the violent arrest by plainclothes officials and Intelligence Ministry agents detained him.
In 2009, Zahabian served as a student volunteer at the Babol campaign headquarters of presidential election candidate Mehdi Karoubi. In February 2009, Zahabian was banned from continuing his education because of his activism and was expelled from university one term shy of graduating. In November 2009, he was arrested again and the Babol Revolutionary Court sentenced him to 6 months in prison stemming from his student activism. He was deprived of his right to an attorney and was not allowed to defend himself in court.
