Arash Saghar: Five Months in Security Ward 209 of Evin Prison

A source close to Arash Saghar, a senior member of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s presidential campaign headquarters in a predominantly Sunni region told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that five months after his arrest, Saghar remains in the Ministry of Intelliigence’s Security Ward 209 at Evin prison, with no further development in his case. The said source said that Arash Saghar is under pressure in interrogations because of his relations with Molavi Abdolhamid, the leader of Iranian Sunnis.

Arash Saghar is from the city of Gonbad-e Kavoos. He served as a liaison between Mousavi’s campaign and the Sunni population in the region. He was arrested on November 22, 2009 and has remained in prison for refusing to accept the interrogators’ demands. After his detention, Saghar was dismissed from his job.

It seems over the past few months many political prisoners’ cases have remained in a limbo. In instances such as student activist Bahareh Hedayat’s case, or the case of Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, where authorities claimed that his case file had been lost, it was not clear who was in charge of the cases. Families of political prisoners who have attempted to follow up on the cases in courts, have faced similar problems.

Arash Saghar is one of the individuals who were arrested during the post-elections events, but who has remained anonymous thus far. He has been charged with espionage for Turkmenistan. No independent source has been able to examine and verify the evidence used for such charges, or whether the legal process in Saghar’s case is in proper conditions.