Iranian judiciary is reportedly pressuring jailed student activist, Majid Tavakoli to accept new charges of collusion with another jailed activist, Bahereh Hedayat through foreign media.
A relative of Tavakoli has informed Radio Zamaneh that he contacted his family from Rejaishahr Prison in Karaj to inform them that he was taken to the Evin Prison Court today to be charged with “collusion with Bahareh Hedayat through foreign media and propaganda against the regime.”
He informed that that he had refused to sign the charge and to make a televised confession.
On National Student Day, Bahareh Hedayat and Majid Tavakoli issued an announcement from prison praising the Iranian student movement abroad as an effective support for the national student movement. The letter got widespread coverage in oppposition websites.
Majid Tavakoli, an Amir Kabir University student and member of the national student organization, Takim-e Vahdat, was arrested on National Student Day last December after giving a speech on campus. He is sentenced to 8.5 years in prison.
He was transferred to RejaiShahr Prison after joining a group hunger strike in Evin Prison in protest to the inappropriate conditions at prison.
Bahareh Hedayat is another prominent student activist who was arrested last December and has been sentenced to 9.5 years in prison.
She is incarcerated in a notorious section of Evin Prison referred to as the “methadone” section. She has been barred from getting visitors since two weeks ago and in protest to the withdrawal of her visitation rights, she has gone on a hunger strike.
The Iranian student movement has been the repeated target of government crackdown in the post-election protests.
