Exclusive | Re-arrest of a Psychiatrist; Uncertainty About Behnam Ohadi's Detention Location

According to reports received by Voice of America, agents of the Islamic Republic government in Iran have arrested a psychiatrist at his workplace. A source close to Behnam Ohadi's family, the 52-year-old psychiatrist, told Voice of America that Mr. Ohadi was arrested on the 15th of Bahman while visiting patients at his workplace. According to this informed source, Dr. Ohadi, in a brief call with his family, stated that his arrest was carried out by the IRGC Intelligence with the charge of 'propaganda against the regime.' This informed source told Voice of America that during this time, Mr. Ohadi's family has been in complete ignorance and that he did not provide any information about his place of detention in this brief call. Behnam Ohadi had traveled to Kurdistan during the protests of 1401 to provide medical assistance and was arrested there as well. In Azar 1401, he, along with Dr. Yaser Rahmani-Rad and Homayoun Eftekhariyan-Nia, an operating room technician, was arrested while traveling to Mahabad to assist the injured in the demonstrations. They were released after 46 days of detention, each on a bail of 600 million tomans. Dr. Rahmani-Rad was also summoned to court again in Dey 1403. At that time, sources close to this protesting physician told Voice of America that the reason for these repeated summons was 'to stop his humanitarian activities.' Many doctors who voluntarily treated injured protesters during the widespread protests of 1401 faced government reprisals, and some of them were killed, injured, or arrested. Aylah Haghi, a medical student, was also one of the medical staff members killed during these protests, shot in the back by the Islamic Republic forces. Hamid and Farzaneh Ghareh-Hosseinlou, a medical couple who were arrested during the widespread protests of 1401 while providing medical care to an injured person, who happened to be from the government’s repressive forces, are currently imprisoned on charges of 'participation in murder' and 'moharebeh.'