Journalist and human rights activist Behzad Mehrani was arrested by intelligence agents on a Tehran street on the morning of March 3, 2010.
RAHANA – Following a new wave of arrests that began on March 2, 2010 at night, blogger and human rights activist Behzad Mehrani was arrested this morning on a Tehran street.
According to a RAHANA reporter, following the arrest, the agents escorted Mehrani to his home, performed a three hour search, and seized a number of items including books and CDs. Mehrani was taken to an unspecified location.
A few hours after the incident, five other agents from the Ministry of Intelligence appeared at Mehrani’s house to arrest him. When they were informed of Mehrani’s arrest, the agents said that they had not been involved in the coordination of the arrest.
The family asked to see the arrest warrant, but the agents only showed the corner of a warrant with their son’s name on it. Faced with the family’s objections, the agents claimed they were under no obligation to show the warrant.
Mehrani’s arrest is more proof of extrajudicial arrests by rogue intelligence groups within the establishment who operate without warrants issued by judicial authorities. In most cases, judges are unaware of the arrests made by the parallel intelligence groups.
There is still no information on the reasons that triggered the arrest or the whereabouts of the journalist. Mehrani has not been engaged in any recent activity [that can lead to an arrest] and he has not updated his blog in a long while.
No comments:
Post a Comment