Kahrizak Victim Remains in Prison for Three Weeks Potentially for Facebook Activities

An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Seyed Ali Saberi, a student at Bahar University in Mashad, has been detained inside the Intelligence Office Detention Center in Mashad for the past 20 days. Iranian laws forbid entry by security, police, or military forces into university campuses, but the student activist’s arrest by security forces took place on campus with the coordination of university officials and security organizations. The law stipulates that only upon the university chancellor’s request and in cases where a dangerous suspect is hiding inside a university campus are security and police forces allowed to enter university campuses.

Seyed Ali Saberi was a member of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s election campaign during the disputed 2009 presidential election.The reasons for his arrest have not been announced by Mashad security and judicial organizations. One of Saberi’s friends, however, told the Campaign that the main reasons for Saberi’s arrest were his “Facebook activities and his [2009] membership in the Mousavi [elections campaign] headquarters.”

“Ali was psychologically and physically tortured at Kahrizak Detention Center; he is one of the plaintiffs in the Kahrizak case. Now, instead of reviewing his case against those who ordered and the carried out the Kahrizak crimes, he himself has been arrested again,” added Saberi’s friend, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

Saberi was arrested in 2009 during protests following the June election and was transferred to Kahrizak Detention Center, where dissidents were tortured and raped. At least four detainees of Kahrizak were killed due to severe torture.