Arrest of Zia Nabavi and Farhad Mithaemi, Two Civil Activists

Reports from Iran indicate that Zia Nabavi and Farhad Mithaemi, two civil activists, were arrested on Tuesday, August 1. Mr. Nabavi, who had traveled from Semnan to Tehran, was detained and transferred to Evin Prison. He contacted his family a few hours ago from Ward 209, which is under the supervision of the Ministry of Intelligence. Zia Nabavi, a star-student and former member of the Islamic Association of Students at Noshirvani University of Babol, was released from Semnan Prison last February, just before the ninth anniversary of his imprisonment. He was arrested on June 15, 2009, three days after the presidential election and the large protests against the election results, along with several friends at the campaign headquarters of Mehdi Karroubi. On Tuesday, journalist and national-religious activist Morteza Kazemian also reported that Farhad Mithaemi had been arrested. Reza Khandan, the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, also announced on his Facebook page that Farhad Mithaemi was arrested at his home. He wrote: 'The crisis in foreign and economic relations has provided a unique opportunity for security and judicial institutions to comfortably invade the privacy of activists and arrest them.' No reports have been released regarding the reasons for the arrests of these two individuals.