- Prison
- Evin
- Status
- Released
Nafas dar Ghafas: Arash Sadeghi was born on 29 September 1986.
He was a member of “Setad 88,” one of the campaign offices supporting Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the 2009 presidential election, a master’s student in philosophy, and a member of the central council of the Islamic Association of Allameh Tabatabai University. He was arrested twice in 2009 and released on bail, and was arrested for a third time in December 2011.
Regarding his two previous detentions, Sadeghi had said: “I was arrested on 9 July and held for 53 days in Ward 2A of the IRGC. During those days my family had no news of me; they didn’t even allow me a single phone call. I was then released on bail, but was arrested again and released 15 days later on a 100-million-toman bail. My trial was held on 4 April at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, which revoked the bail and I was detained again, this time released on a 500-million-toman bail. In the first detention they raised the charge of moharebeh (enmity against God) and said I had to confess that I had ties to the MEK and contacts with friends abroad. They wanted to film a televised interview and claim that this member of Setad 88 had links to the MEK. When I resisted, they threatened to arrest my mother or have my father fired, and insulted my sister. In the second stage they said I had to confess that I had led the university unrest and written the statements.”
According to human rights activists, Arash Sadeghi — a student activist barred from education at Allameh University, held in the security Ward 209 of Evin since 15 January 2012 — was beaten by prison officers on 1 June and went on hunger strike from that day.
Notably, during his first arrest on 9 July 2009, as security agents raided the home, Arash Sadeghi’s mother died of a heart attack.
Alizadeh Tabatabai, Arash Sadeghi’s former lawyer in his first case, took up the case after rumours spread that the student might have been killed in prison. He said: “In Arash’s previous case I was his lawyer; he had been given a 6-year discretionary prison term, which on appeal was reduced to one year in prison with the rest suspended. He served that year and was released.”
According to his grandfather, Arash’s interrogator cited his interviews with the Rooz Online website and BBC Persian as the charge in his third arrest.
The judiciary spokesman Mohseni Ejei had earlier denied the existence of such a person in Evin, responding to a journalist’s question: “It has been said that this person went on hunger strike in Evin, whereas no such person existed in Evin in 2012 and 2013.”
His family, however, considered Arash Sadeghi’s complaint against the Ministry of Intelligence over his mother’s death to be the reason for his prolonged detention. According to Sadeghi, he was subjected to extensive psychological and physical torture during his detention.
He was released from Evin prison on bail on 18 October 2013.
