فارسى

Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), August 9 — Last week Kouhyar Goudarzi, journalist and member of CHRR, and his mother Parvin Mokhtare were arrested for unknown reasons, and no official Iranian authority has taken responsibility for this act.

Kouhyar Goudarzi’s attorney Mina Jafari expressed her concern in a conversation with CHRR: "My and his family’s attempts to find detailed information about the location, time, and the reason(s) of the arrests have so far proven fruitless. At the moment, since we don’t know which governmental organization is responsible for the arrests, I cannot do much, but his family is trying to obtain information from the Judiciary.”

His attorney added, “[Kouhyar’s] family is trying to obtain information about him, but they have received no answers so far. We are concerned about his situation. It seems that only his mother, in a very short call to her sister, had talked about her son’s detention. A short time later she was also detained and brought to Kerman central prison. Considering Kouhyar’s poor physical health, we are deeply concerned about his situation. We hope the Attorney General will at least inform us whether he is alive and detained.”

Additionally, another relative, who is desperately trying to obtain information about Kouhyar Goudarzi and his mother, said to CHRR, “In recent days we have been searching for them in the Revolutionary Court at Arg Square. [Authorities at the Revolutionary Court] told us they had not ordered Kouhyar’s detention. We visited a few other judicial archive centers, but the [authorities there] did not provide us with any answers [either]. We were not allowed to visit the Attorney General and, finally, we were led to the Shahid Moghaddas court in Evin prison. Unfortunately, the questions we posed to Evin’s Attorney General also went unanswered. They asked us if we were certain whether Kouhyar was there, but they did not allow us to enter inside. One of the court agents recommended that we refer to a local police station and declare [Kouhyar and his mother] lost and file an abduction complaint.”

Mina Jafari mentioned that judicial authorities have not provided any information regarding the location of Kouhyar Goudarzi’s detention. She said: “We repeatedly expressed our concern about his current location and health and questioned which office was responsible for his arrest, but nobody responded.” She continued, “I wasn’t aware of Kouhyar and his mother’s arrest. Apparently they arrested Kouhyar last Sunday in his home on Jamalzadeh Street, but he didn’t contact his family afterward. Unfortunately, on Monday morning, they also transferred his mother to Kerman prison and inspected Kouhyar’s home, taking with them some of books and other belongings.”

Parvin Mokhtare has no history of political or civil activism, and the reason for her arrest is unclear. Kouhyar’s cousin, said to CHRR, "We don’t know about the accusations against [Parvin Mokhtare]. She just called us once. Her sister is in Kerman and is trying to arrange a meeting to find details on the accusations against [Parvin Mokhtare], who has no attorney yet. We have no information on who arrested Mrs. Mokhtare and how it happened.”

Kouhyar Goudarzi, a banned university student and human rights activist was arrested and moved to Evin prison after the 2009 Iranian Presidential election. He was released on December 14, 2010 after enduring one year in prison.

Translation: Saeedeh Ravandi