Concern of a Tehran City Council Member Over the Repetition of Kahrizak Incidents

Amid reports of ongoing arrests in Iran, a member of the Tehran City Council expressed concern over the repetition of incidents like the Kahrizak detention center. According to ISNA news agency, Nahid Khodakarami, a member of the Tehran City Council, on Sunday, January 7, in her pre-scheduled speech, referred to the arrest of 'a large number of Tehran citizens including students' and stated that 'people are very worried with the bitter memory of Kahrizak and the fate of the Rouh-al-Amini family.' She added: 'They are worried that another judge, another rogue force, or a cellmate of thugs might make a mistake and God forbid, an irreversible incident might occur.' Ali-Asghar Nasirbakht, the deputy governor of Tehran, on January 2, in response to a question about preventing a repeat of the Kahrizak incident of 2009, said that judicial officials have 'definitely' thought about this and have devised measures to 'prevent unpleasant events of the past years.' However, he did not specify the nature of these measures and conditions. According to official reports from the Iranian government, during the protests against the results of the 2009 elections, several prisoners named Mohsen Rouh-al-Amini, Amir Javadi-Far, Mohammad Kamrani, and Ramin Aghazadeh Gahramani were killed in the Kahrizak detention center due to torture. In her speech, Nahid Khodakarami also requested responsible institutions to report how many protesters have been arrested in recent days. She also urged the head of the Tehran City Council to 'seriously follow up on the fate of the detainees from recent events and to facilitate the presence of the families of the detainees in the Islamic Council of the City of Tehran.' According to official statistics, at least 1,800 people have been arrested in recent protest gatherings. Meanwhile, a number of students and student labor activists have been arrested, with some reports indicating their number is around 100. In this context, some officials of the Islamic Republic and members of parliament have reported the release of some detainees. In this regard, the Workers' Rights Defenders Association announced that Mehdi Topchi, a labor activist, was arrested at his home by security forces on January 4. Previously, Alireza Moieni, a labor activist, was arrested in Tabriz and was released on Saturday, January 6. Additionally, a relative of Shahrivar Golvani, a writer and translator, told Radio Farda that he was arrested at his home in Khoy by security agents on Thursday. According to him, the reasons for Golvani's arrest have not yet been specified. Meanwhile, the student guild councils of the country reported on their Telegram channel that agents searched the home of Aydin Mohsen Nejad, a student at Tabriz University and the editor-in-chief of the student publication 'Jameh,' in Khoy without a warrant and confiscated his personal belongings. Khoy witnessed a gathering on January 1. In the same context, the Human Rights Campaign in Iran announced on its Twitter page that six detained students named Romina Mohseni, Siavash Amjadi, Sina Ghafari, Soroush Mousavian, Soheil Mohaddan, and Mohammad Mohammadian have been released. These students had been arrested in recent days along with dozens of other students and student labor activists by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. In this regard, Farid Mousavi, a member of parliament, tweeted that he is following up on the situation of the detained students, stating that they were arrested for what he described as 'prevention.' Nevertheless, the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization reported on Sunday that Nabi Tardast and Omid Jamshidi, two detained students in Ward 10 of Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, are being held under temporary detention, and added that no information has been obtained regarding the fate of Vahid Mazaheri, another detained student. According to this report, Luqman Veysi, a student at Razi University, was temporarily released from prison in Kermanshah three days after his arrest after posting a bail of 40 million tomans. The Kurdistan Human Rights Organization also added that Dara Mostofi, a journalist and sociology student at Rasht University, was summoned by the information office of Saqez and interrogated for several hours due to publishing critical content about Kurdistan on Facebook. This report regarding Siavash Kalami and Mohammad Javad Amirzadeh, two students at Urmia University, indicates that they are held in Urmia prison. This human rights organization noted that 'due to pressure and threats against the families of recent detainees and also due to disruptions in Iran's internet, accurate information about the identities of the majority of the detainees from recent protests has not been obtained.' Meanwhile, the Iranian Writers' Association issued a statement on Sunday calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees from recent protests and all political, ideological, and labor prisoners. The Iranian Writers' Association also emphasized the necessity of 'complete freedom of expression without exception for all people and addressing the chronic pains and problems of citizens' and called for the freedom of independent organizations including parties, associations, and political and labor unions. Part of this organization’s statement reads: 'Freedom of expression is the freedom of the people's open dissent against anything they do not approve of.' The Iranian Writers' Association also described the detention of protesters as 'repressive behavior,' stating that this behavior 'clearly shows the level of freedom in society in front of people who are exhausted from deadly economic, social, and cultural pressures and clearly reveals the lies of government officials who stare into cameras and twist their tongues claiming that protest is the right of the people.' The statement also noted that 'the right to protest is real only when the government does not have the right to suppress it; otherwise, it is nothing more than a formality and deception.' Additionally, the Workers' Rights Defenders Association, in its Telegram channel, called for the 'unconditional release of students, students, workers, and unemployed youth and all those arrested under the pretext of participating in riots' and demanded that 'thieves, looters, and embezzlers of people's assets be arrested and punished.' Previously, the ILNA news agency reported that Mohammad Bat'haei, the Minister of Education, and the security and officials of this ministry are pursuing accurate statistics on the number of detained students, but no statistics on detained students have been announced so far.