Peyman Piran

UPDATE: (October 15, 2008) Peyman Piran, a student activist with the Equality and Freedom-Seeking student group, was arrested for the fifth time on 4 December 2007. Piran was giving a speech across the street from Tehran University in celebration of National College Student Day and was arrested by plainclothes security forces. He was kept in custody for 5 months, 4 of which were in solitary confinement in Evin Prison’s Section 209. He was tortured physically and psychologically throughout his incarceration. On 30 April 2008, Piran was released after posting his $83,442 (800 million Rial) bail.

Along with 55 other student activists arrested in December 2007 and January 2008, Piran was denied the opportunity to meet with a lawyer. Only after 20 days was he finally allowed to briefly speak with his family on the telephone. While in custody he was tortured and subjected to long overnight interrogations during which he was beaten. Severe beatings to the face and head have permanently damaged his right middle ear. The conditions in Piran’s cell resulted in his suffering from skin ailments and digestive problems.

Piran and the rest of the Equality and Freedom-Seeking student activists arrested by the government continue to be intimidated by officials after their release. They are pressured and routinely threatened by security officials that if they become involved in the activities they were a part of before their arrest, they will be charged with apostasy, a crime that carries the death sentence.

Piran was arrested for the first time on 7 March 2004, and in 2005 was charged with “attempts to jeopardize national security” by the 26th Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment and barred from social activist endeavors for ten years. He was also denied the opportunity to finish his education. In the years that Piran has been kept in jail he has written and published numerous letters detailing the psychological and physical torture he has been subjected to and the pressures placed on his family during his incarceration.

Peyman Piran, arrested in November 2007, is a political dissident and student activist. He is held in Evin prison and has reportedly been subjected to ill-treatment to make false confessions.

Piran and more than 60 other students were arrested during a nationwide sweep between November 2007 and January 2008.

In February and March, the authorities released most of the detainees, but only after collecting heavy bail amounts in the range of 500 million-2 billion Rials ($55,000-$220,000). As of March 5, 2008, Piran and five other students remained in detention.