Leaders Of Student Reformist Group Pushed To Back Down
Four members of Iran’s largest reformist student group, the Office to Foster Unity, have been pressured to dissolve their organization. Members Bahareh Hedayat, Mehdi Arabshahi, Morteza Semyari and Milad Asadi are currently in prison for their involvement in the group. In an interview with Radio Farda, Ali Afshari, a former member of the Office to Foster Unity, says the jailed members told their families that they would not submit to “this illegal, unjustified demand of the regime.”
Milad Asadi, who has been in solitary confinement for about two months, is in worrisome condition, adds Afshari. He also reports that unprecedented heavy sentences have been issued for other student activists, including Majid Tavakoli, who received eight and a half years in jail, a five-year ban from political activities, and a ban on leaving the country.
[listen in Farsi]
Freedom Movement Of Iran Offered Release On Condition Of Liquidation
Ahmad Sadr Haj Seyed Javadi, a senior member of the Freedom Movement of Iran, tells Radio Farda that his organization has been under pressure to stop its activities.
He adds that authorities told 13 members of the Freedom Movement of Iran, their relatives, and its Secretary General Ebrahim Yazdi, who were all arrested in the course of post-election crackdowns, that they need to liquidate the organization in order to be released.
[read in Farsi]