Watchdog

A former chancellor of Tehran University has been arrested, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

Mohammad Maleki, 76, was reportedly recovering from a serious illness at his home when he was detained. About 80 of his books and personal documents were also confiscated.

The reason for his arrest and the charges against him are unclear.

Maleki's wife told Radio Farda that one of the security officers who arrested Maleki said he is being imprisoned because of his alleged ties to the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization, or MKO).

Maleki, a national religious activist, was appointed chancellor of Tehran University after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In recent years he has been arrested several times and jailed. He was also jailed when the Shah of Iran was in power.

Human rights activists in Russia are commemorating their former colleague Natalya Estemirova today, the 40th day after she was abducted in Grozny and killed by her kidnappers, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Commemoration events are scheduled in several Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Lev Ponomarev, the head of the For Human Rights movement, told RFE/RL that despite President Dmitry Medvedev's personal order to the Prosecutor-General's Investigation Department to find those behind her murder, he believes it is unlikely the culprits will ever be found.

Ponomarev said some Russian human rights organizations have officially demanded that Medvedev suspend Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov while the investigation is under way.

Kadyrov expressed a negative attitude toward Estemirova and her work in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL conducted after she was killed.

Estemirova worked for the Grozny branch of the human rights center Memorial.

Memorial's branch in Grozny was closed after her death.