Source:

August 29, 2010

Sara Sabaghiyan, one of Ronaghi’s attorneys, told the RAHANA reporter that “they have said that the Cyber Unit of the Revolutionary Guard has prevented the release of Ronaghi; they informed us orally and we are unaware of what is in his case files.” Sabaghiyan further stated that “judge Mirabbas of the 26^th branch of the Revolutionary Court issued a bail last week and his family provided the court with the 300 million tooman ($300,000) bail but as I said before the Revolutionary Guard prevented the release and the temporary detention order was extended for another month.”

His parents were anxiously awaiting his release near Evin Prison after they prepared the bail which was issued by the Malekan Revolutionary Court. They were informed that the Revolutionary Guard has prevented his release and he will be held in Ward 2A, the solitary confinement unit of the Revolutionary Guard, for another month. Zoleikha Mousavi, Ronaghi;s mother, told RAHANA that “we were at Evin Prison until 11 pm last week and they did not release him”. “They had told us he will be released 2 or 3 days after providing them with the bail but my son is still held in solitary confinement,” she said. Sara Sabaghiyan told the Human Rights House of Iran that on August 16^th, a hearing was held for Ronaghi and that she and Mr. Dadkhah attended the session as his lawyers.” She further added that, “he did not present the court with his final defense and the next court session was supposed to be held after his release since he had to present the court with evidence that he could only prepare himself and that Mr. Dadkhah and I could not prepare.”

She also stated that Ronaghi, who blogged under the name of Babak Khorramdin, has been charged with publishing lies, insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic, insulting the Supreme Leader, and creating proxy servers. She added that the “first court session was a good session but now that he has not been released, we are really concerned and we are hoping that nothing happens to him.” We don’t know how his condition is in prison; Mr. Dadkhah presented the court with a complaint after hearing that the Revolutionary Guard has denied his release order and they said that the court will respond to it on Monday.”   Hossein Ronaghi, a 24 year old Azeri citizen, was detained on December 13, 2009 for blogging and human rights activities at his house.  He was transferred to Evin prison and has been under constant psychological and physical torture to make false televised confessions.