Human Rights Activist and His Mother Arrested

Iran Human Rights: According to reports from Iran, human rights activist Kouhyar Goudarzi and his mother Parvin Mokhtare have been arrested by the Iranian authorities.

Parvin Mokhtare was arrested in Kerman (southeastern Iran) and is being held in a detention center in this city. There are no confirmed reports about the exact date of Kouhyar Goudarzi’s arrest or his current location, but reports say that he was arrested during the past few days.

It is believed that the reason for Kouhyar Goudarzi’s arrest is his human rights activities. There are currently no confirmed details available on their official charges.

In the past few days, Kouhyar Goudarzi’s close friends have made unsuccessful attempts to obtain information on his whereabouts. Additionally, according to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) website, some of Kouhyar Goudarzi’s friends were summoned in recent days by the Ministry of Intelligence for interrogation.

Kouhyar Goudarzi, a human rights defender and member of CHRR, was arrested in December 2009 along with other human rights activists as they were on their way to Qom (southwest of Tehran) to attend Ayatollah Montazeri’s funeral.

In June 2010, Judge PirAbassi from branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Kouhyar Goudarzi to one year in prison. He was charged with, “Propaganda against the regime, publishing articles on CHRR and other websites, and having contacts with opposition groups outside Iran”.

Kouhyar Goudarzi was held in Evin prison for approximately ten months before he was transferred to Rajai Shahr ‘Gohardasht’ prison (Karaj) in October 2010. He was held there until his release on December 14, 2010.

According to sources, Parvin Mokhtareh has no history of political activities. She had occasionally spoken about her son’s imprisonment.