January 1, 2010

Source:

Parisa Kakayi and Mehrdad Rahimi joined the five other detained members of the  () after being summoned to the investigative office of the Intelligence Ministry tonight. The arrests bring the number of detained CHRR members to seven, with other members under serious risk of arrest as well.

Saeed Kalanaki and Saeed Jalaifar are two CHRR members who have been subject to physical and psychological pressure since their arrest on December 3rd, 2009

Koohyar Gudarzi, Saeed Haeri and Shiva Nazar-Ahari were arrested and taken to Evin on December 20th, 2009 as they were leaving to attend Ayatollah Motazeri’s funeral in Qom. Shiva Nazar-Ahari started a hunger strike as soon as she was arrested and had to be taken to the prison’s clinic after her condition became critical. Previously, on September 23rd, 2009, Shiva Nazar-Ahari was released on $200,000 bail, after spending 100 days in prison.

Yesterday four other members of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, Saeed Habibi, Hesam Misaghi, Parisa Kakayi, and Mehrdad Rahimi were summoned to the investigative office of the Intelligence Ministry. Parisa and Mehrdad were arrested upon arrival. Prison interrogators put extreme pressure on the detained CHRR members. The interrogators have demanded for the organization to completely stop its activities. Alavi who is the chief interrogator has told the detained CHRR members, “Either you shut down the CHRR website and delete its content or all your members will be arrested.”

At a time when the cases of human rights violations are on the rise in Iran, the pressure exercised on an independent rights group is a clear sign that the Islamic Republic is setting the ground for harsher and more repressive measures against dissidents. In Iran independent human rights groups are not officially recognized and their activities are considered to be illegal. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is the foundation for the activities of all human rights organizations including the CHRR

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