At the same time, following the arrest of tens of reformist political activists and their families lack of knowledge of the whereabouts of the detainees, the minority faction of the Majlis comprised primarily of reformers opposing Ahmadinejad and the militant hardline faction that supports him, sent a letter to the head of the head of Iran’s judiciary asking him to meet with the family members of those who had been arrested during the recent street clashes following the announcement of the presidential elections.
The letter, addressed to ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, said in part, “the vast arrests which were mostly carries out without the proper legal procedures these days has raised the concern of society and family members of those detained.” The letter specifically says that the place of keeping the detainees, and the manner of their treatment are among the issues that are not known and of concern.
Arrest of Leaders of Reformist Parties
After the absence of any news for a day regarding the fate of Mohsen Mirdamadi and Safai Farahani, the leaders of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, who were arrested earlier, Nowruz website posted accounts indicating that on Saturday June 20th, Mirdamadi was arrested by unidentified individuals for the second time in a week. The party is a powerful reformist group that includes prominent members such as reformist former president Khatami, Elaheh Koulaei, and Mostafa Moin.
Mirdamadi had been initially arrested the week following the June 12th elections that displayed the rage of Iranians regarding the announced results of the presidential race that re-instated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. He was arrested along with other leaders of the party, while he was released within the next 24 hours. Mirdamadi’s wife told Rooz last Saturday evening that her husband had disappeared after leaving home the day in the morning and that he had probably been rounded up.
Farahani, the other Participation party leader too was arrested on Saturday from his work. Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, Saeed Hajjarian, Ali Mazrui, Ali Tajernia, Shahab-al-din Tabatabai are among other leaders of the Participation party that have also been arrested during the last week. Saeed Noormohammadi and Ali Taghipour, two other members of the party have also been reported to have been arrested.
Another party advocating reforms in Iran, the Islamic Revolution Mojahedin (Mojahedin Enghelab Eslami) who supported Mir Hossein Mousavi’s bid for the presidency announced that in the widespread arrests of last week, 7 of their leading members had been detained.
Behzad Nabavi, Mostafa Tajzadeh - both leadership members of the group - Javad Imam and Majid Nayeri, members of the Tehran branch of the group, Mohsen Bastani and Mehrdad Balafkan, both members of the Isfahan branch, and cleric Ismaili are also among those arrested.
Websites close to the political group that is commonly knows as National-Religious group also reported the disappearance of Hadi Ehtezami I Hamedan adding that he had been missing for 3 days since he left his house without any news of his whereabouts, while his family members remained concerned about his situation.
Government newspaper Iran on Saturday morning published a report about the arrest of senior veteran politician Hashemi Rafsanjani daughter (Faeze Hashemi), along with her daughter and husband, and also that of the daughter and daughter in law of Hossein Marashi in Tehran. The BBC reported on Sunday that Faeze had been released within 24 hours of her detention.
Arrest of Student Activists
A group of student activists who worked in the campaigns of presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi are also reported to have arrested during the last 24 hours.
Abdollah Momeni, the spokes person for the Advar Tahkim Vahdat student organization and a leading member of Karoubi’s election campaign was arrested on Sunday night after security agents stormed the campaign offices in Vanak district of Tehran.
Members of Mousavi’s campaign too, including Ali Vefghi were arrested in recent days.
Ehsan Bakeri, Hamzeh Ghalebi, Saeed Nikkhah, Hamayi, Fatahi and Zakeri from Tehran and Reza Arjabini, Jalal Bahrami, Sadegh Rasooli, Ahad Rezai, Bagher Fathali Beygi, Mansur Vafa, all members of Mousavi’s campaign offices in the southern town of Zanjan were also among those arrested.
The Arrest of 20 Journalists in One Week
On Saturday night, security agents stormed the house of Jhila Bani Yaghoob and her husband Bahman Ahmadi Amui, both journalists, and took them away. Prior to taking them away, the agents searched their house and confiscated some of their household property.
Bahman is an economic journalist and analyst while Jhila is both a journalist and a women’s rights activist.
On Saturday morning too, security agents in Tehran arrested Mohammad Ghoochani, journalist and editor in chief of Etemad Melli newspaper, a pro-Karoubi daily, from his house. Journalist Mojtaba Pour Mohsen, who also runs a blog and is the editor of Gilan Emrouz daily in the province of Gilan was arrested in the city of Rasht in northern Iran.
Abdolreza Tajik, Mahsa Amrabadi, Ahmad Zeidabadi, Keivan Samimi Behbahani, Behzad Bashoo, seyed Khalil Mirashrafi, Somaye Tohidloo, Mohammad Atriyanfar, Saeed Hajjarian, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Saeed Leylaz, and 11 other journalists who have been arrested by security agents since June 13, a day after nation-wide protests began over the rigged elections.
Ruhollah Shahsav in Mashhad, Mashalah Heidarzadeh, Hamideh Mahowzi, Amanollah Shojayi, Hossein Shokuhi in Bushehr are also among other journalists who were arrested last week.
With Jhila Bani Yaghoob and her husband Bahman Ahmadi Amui the total number of journalists arrested in just a week has topped 20 while a total of 32 journalists are behind bars in Iran as of the time this report was written.
