Arrest of Mohammad Ali Hashemi Rad, Member of the National-Religious Activists Council

The Iranian National-Religious news website reported on Wednesday, December 5, that Mohammad Ali Hashemi Rad, known as Nasser Hashemi Rad, a member of the National-Religious Activists Council, who had previously been sentenced to 11 years in prison, was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Monday, December 3, and sent to prison. According to this website, Nasser Hashemi Rad had been interrogated several times by IRGC interrogators regarding his membership in the National-Religious Activists Council since the beginning of 2011 and had been arrested in 2012. He was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Yahya Pir-Abbasi on charges such as 'propaganda against the regime and establishing the National-Religious Activists Council,' and this sentence was confirmed by the appeals court. This member of the National-Religious Activists Council was also arrested on Saturday, August 17, 2013, following a summons to Branch 2 of the Evin Prosecutor's Office and was released after one day. Reports indicate that Nasser Hashemi is a PhD graduate in economics and an employee of the Management and Planning Organization. The Iranian National-Religious news website also reported on Thursday, November 15, that Rouyin Atoufat, a cultural activist of this political movement, was sentenced to ten years in prison and two years of prohibition from 'activities in parties and groups' by the appeals court. These two sentences issued for these two national-religious activists are among the long and heavy sentences issued in recent years following the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election. The issuance of these sentences comes at a time when many activists of the national-religious political movement and the Freedom Movement of Iran have been arrested after the 2009 presidential election, and some of them are still in prison. Alireza Raji, a national-religious activist and journalist, who was sentenced to four years in prison, has been in prison since 2011. Emad Bahavar, head of the youth branch and a member of the political office of the Freedom Movement of Iran, who was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to seven years in prison, is also still incarcerated. He was initially sentenced to ten years in prison. Amir Khorram, a member of the Freedom Movement of Iran, who was sentenced to six years in prison, has been imprisoned since September 2011.