By Jubin Katiraie
Iran’s main opposition group the People’s Mujahedin (MEK) on Tuesday announced the names of 28 anti-regime activists arrested, some as little as a month ago, for their role in nationwide protests against the regime.
The MEK, also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI), called for urgent international action for the protesters’ release.
Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi announced on April 19, 2019: “Over the past year, 116 teams related to the MEK have been dealt with.”
In a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the opposition coalition that includes the MEK, said Alavi was trying to “boost the morale of the regime’s depressed forces after the terrorist designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), by making ridiculous claims such as the mullahs’ Gestapo had achieved an ‘intelligence epic’ by following ‘Khamenei’s guidelines’ over the past year”.
The NCRI emphasized that the number of activists arrested in the past year is far greater than the figures provided by Alavi. The NCRI responded to Alavi by demanding the regime publish the names of all those arrested.
The following are the names of the 28 detained opposition activists, as published by the MEK:
(Name, age, city, date of arrest)
1. Farshad Etemadifar, 24, Gachsaran, June 2018
2. Omid Javid Nasab, 20, Gachsaran, June 2018
3. Farshad, 21, Gachsaran, June 2018
4. Farshid Baharan, 21, Yasouj, June 2018
5. Mehrzad Baharan, 27, Yasouj, June 2018
6. Amir Ramin Fard, 38, Tabriz, June 2018
7. Shahyad Ghanavati, 32, Ahvaz, September 2018
8. Afshin Barzegar Jamshidi, 29, September 2018
9. Majid Mahmoudian, 37, Tabriz, September 2018
10. Mohammad Reza Hasan Maleki, 33, Semnan, October 2018
11. Zarir Hadipour, 56, Kohdasht, October 2018
12. Farhang Khorshidi, 41, Kohdasht, October 2018
13. Alireza Barzegar, 40, Karaj, October 2018
14. Pouriya Vahidian, Tehran, November 2018
15. Manoochehr Farhadi, 50, Isfahan, February 2019
16. Seyyed Mehdi Vafaie, 35, Tehran, February 2019
17. Hossein Noori Derakhshan, 36, Tehran, February 2019
18. Hamid Kashani, Ghaemshahr, February 2019
19. Vahid Bani Ameriyan, 26, Tehran, March 2019
20. Pooya Ghobadi, 26, Tehran, March 2019
21. Sina Zahiri, 36, Tehran, March 2019
22. Mohsen Farid, 44, Tehran, March 2019
23. And 24. Parsa Sedighi Hamedani, 22, with her sister, Urmia, March 2019
25. Ebrahim Khalil Sedighi Hamedani, Urmia, 60, March 2019
26. Afshin Shahsavari, 27, Tehran, March 2019
27. Abbas Shahbazi, 41, Ahvaz, March 2019
28. Najah Anvar Hamidi, 60, Ahvaz, March 2019
On April 19, 2019, opposition leader Maryam Rajavi urged the United Nations Secretary-General, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council and international human rights organisations to take immediate action to gain the release of those detainees and to appoint delegations to visit Iran’s prisons and meet political prisoners.
