NCRI – A group of agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided the residence of Mr. Reza Joshan in Karaj, western Tehran, on Tuseday. The raid was conducted by Reza Mohebi, an MOIS chief-interrogator in conjunction with other interrogators identified by their surnames, Mohammadi and Hassani. Mr. Joshani had earlier been arrested during recent months’ protests and was release on bail. Mother and sister of Mr. Joshan, Zahra Asad Pour Gorji and Fatemeh Joshan, had previously spent two years in prison for visiting their children in Camp Ashraf.
On November 30, Mr. Mohammad Banazadeh Amir Khizi, a Tehran Baazar merchant, was arrested in a raid on his house and work place by MOIS agents. He is a former political prisoner in 1980s. His brother, Ali, was executed during that period for supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). His wife, Shahla Zarin Far, was imprisoned for a year for visiting her child in Ashraf. Three of her sisters and brothers are currently in Gohardasht prison because their children are in Camp Ashraf. Mrs. Kobra Amirkhizi, 56, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment, has lost her eye sight due to tortures and lack of medical attention.
Faced with spreading nationwide uprising, the regime is making a futile attempt to contain it by arresting more people and torturing them and putting more pressure on families of Ashraf residents. Many members of families of Ashraf residents have been in jail during recent years and their cases remain uncertain.
The Iranian Resistance expresses concern over the critical state of families of PMOI members and calls on all human rights organizations, especially the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, to adopt urgent and binding measures to get political prisoners released in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 1, 2009
