Ali Sepandar and Behzad Parvin, Two Imprisoned Birjand University Students Released

In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a student activist reported the release of Ali Sepandar and Behzad Parvin, two members of the Central Council of the Islamic Association at Birjand University. The two students were being held in Birjand Central Prison. Sepandar, Parvin, and Milad Garajian, also a member of the Islamic Association at Birjand University, were arrested in March and transferred to Birjand and Neyshabour Prisons. The students were arrested and tried for their student activism and their participation in Mehdi Karroubi’s election campaign last year.

Previously, these students were arrested along with Amin Ostadi in July 2009 in the cities of Mashad, Birjand, and Neyshabour. They were transferred to Birjand Intelligence Office and released later. They were re-arrested and transferred to prison just before the Iranian New Year (21 March 2010), and only two days after their sentences were upheld in an appeals court. Behzad Parvin, Secretary of Birjand University’s Islamic Association was sentenced to a three months and one day prison term. He was arrested in Mashad and transferred to Birjand.

Ali Sepandar, Political Secretary of the Birjand University Islamic Association, was also sentenced to a three month and one day prison term and a three month suspended prison term. He, too, was arrested in Mashad and transferred to Birjand Prison.