Two Weeks After Babak Heshmat Saran’s Arrest, Whereabouts Unknown
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Babak Heshmat Saran’s mother, Elaheh Nazjoo, expressed concern about his condition. Nazjoo said that since her son’s arrest two weeks ago, judicial authorities have not answered her inquiries about his situation and there has been no news of his whereabouts. “Babak briefly contacted us three days after his arrest but did not say where he was,” she said. Babak Heshmat Saran is the son of the late Amir Hossein Heshmat Saran, Secretary General of the Iran National Unity Front, who mysteriously died last year inside Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. Heshmat Saran was recently barred from continuing his education as a civil engineer.
Nazjoo said she has contacted different authorities several times trying to find out her son’s condition. “Wherever I go I do not get any answers,” she said. “I have contacted the Prevention Police, the Revolutionary Courts, and Police Station 148, because it is close to where Babak was arrested and apparently some of those arrested were transferred to this location. We went to this precinct but my questions were not answered, and I have gone everywhere I could think of, but without any results.”
Regarding the way her son was arrested, she said, “He and his friend, Ahmad Shahrezaei, were attacked on 12 June 2010 in Tehran on Enghelab Avenue before reaching the protests. Ahmad was arrested and Babak was beaten with a baton but he escaped and went to his aunt’s house which is in the same area. When Babak returned to Enghelab Avenue later a motorcycle followed him and he was also arrested.”
On 12 June 2010, families of those arrested during the anniversary of last year’s post-election protests gathered in front of Vozara Detention Facility and Police Station 148 and demanded the immediate release of their relatives. However, the judicial authorities refused to even confirm the names of those arrested. Even now, after two weeks, the families of many of the people arrested at the anniversary protests have no information about their relatives’ whereabouts, and judicial authorities do not answer any questions about their status.
