The defense attorney for detainees Bahareh Hedayat and Mohammad Sedigh Kaboodvand has complained about the conditions of her clients by the relevant authorities and over suspicious telephone calls and visits to their family members.

A week into the detention of her client Bahareh, who is a student activist and leadership member of the Daftare Tahkim Vahdat student organization, attorney Nasrin Sotudeh told Rooz that her client Bahareh had succeeded in talking to her family members 2 or 3 days ago in which she had also told them not to expect her in the next month or two. “During the last 2 days the family members of both families (Hedayat and Kaboodvand) have received suspicious telephone calls. Kaboodvand’s husband says someone called him at work and after identifying himself as a member of the ministry of intelligence asked him for information. Then someone from the law enforcement force asked him whether he was certain that the previous caller was from the ministry of intelligence,” Sotudeh said.

Regarding Bahareh, the attorney said that someone introduced himself as a member of a non-government organization and after entering her house showed her a search warrant and searched their house. She expressed her concern about these calls adding that they put prisoners in a dangerous situation. She said that she visited Evin prison and her request to meet with her client Kaboodvand was turned down. Then on her visit to the judiciary she was told that her representation of her client was not recognized, just as they would not formally announce the charges against Kaboodvand.

Bahareh Hedayat is a student activist who was arrested on Tir 18 (July 9, 2007) along with 15 other students from Daftare Tahkim Vahdat student organization and others from Advar Tahkim student group.

Kaboodvand is the executive manager and licence owner of Payame Mardom (People’s Voice) newspaper, whose license was revoked three days ago by an appellate court in Kurdistan. The court sentence was subsequently reduced after attorneys Sotudeh and Seifzadeh appealed the ruling and took the case to the supreme court. The publication ban ended on July 1, 2007, which is the day Kaboodvand himself was arrested and taken to prison from his office.

Defense Attorney Nasrin Sotudeh complains about the uncertain status of her clients and the suspicious telephone calls their families have been receiving.