From Iran Focus:
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 12 - A student in his teens has died under torture in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, Iran Focus has learnt.
Sohrab Arabi, 19, was arrested on 20 June during an anti-government protest.
His family had been contacted by authorities on Tuesday and told they could post bail for his release.
Arabi's mother had posted bail and had been awaiting his release.
She had protested outside Evin Prison with relatives of other detainees demanding their freedom.
Arabi's family were subsequently informed on Saturday that they should collect his dead body from Evin Prison.
The opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq says Arabi died under torture.
Here's an interesting article;
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090720/dreyfuss
From that article:
"On June 9 a widely reported leak from the Interior Ministry said that Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi had issued a fatwa permitting vote counters to manipulate the results in favor of the candidate who is truly a devotee of Islam. "To you, as administrators of the election, everything is permitted to this end," Mesbah Yazdi wrote."
I hadn't heard that before, although I admit that I'm not all that up-to-date on the subject.
Posted by: Dom | July 12, 2009 at 08:43 PM
The following comment was left on my blog by Selma, a blogger from Tehran. She tells of rumours which affirm Arabi's story:
Sitting here in Tehran, I feel even more useless.
My boyfriend and five other friends were arrested 5 days ago, midnight, at their homes. For 5 days we didn’t know if they were really arrested or were they hiding. The news is confirmed now. They were arrested.
The mere thought of them being tortured is crushing. I can’t sleep. I can’t think.
And there is nothing I can do. I don’t even know where they are.
Every night I sit in the dark wondering whether I’m next.
Wondering where he is sleeping tonight… Is he hurt? Is he getting anything to eat? Are they going to keep him for days? Months? Years?
What will happen to them?
I’ve heard of some families who were called in to collect the bodies of their loved ones.
I live here, and yet there is nothing I can do.
Walking the streets of Tehran for five hours…As if in a coma… looking around, i wondered why the shops were open, why people were going about their daily business, why nobody did anything to help my friends … but then, there is nothing we can do …
I shouldn’t mention his name anywhere, because they’d put him under more pressure if they assume that he is supported by people outside Iran.
It’s crazy!"
http://contentious-centrist.blogspot.com/2009/06/broken-wills-from-selma-in-tehran.html
Posted by: Noga | July 13, 2009 at 02:14 AM