Five volunteers who were arrested at the independent relief camps set up in northwestern Iran to deliver aid to victims of last month’s deadly earthquake have been transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran.
An opposition website, the Society for the Fight against Education Discrimination, reported on Wednesday that Navid Khanjani, Homan Taheri, Sepehrdad Saheban, Esmail Salmanpour and Massoud Vafabakhsh were transferred from the Tabriz police detention centre to Evin Prison in Tehran.
Earlier, the authorities had announced that all the volunteers detained at the aid camps had been issued bail provisions, but the judge has apparently not accepted bail for some of the detainees.
Thirty-five people were arrested on August 20 at a camp set up by volunteers in Sarand village in Eastern Azerbaijan Province.
Two days later, all the women and three men were released on bail. The 21 volunteers who remained in custody issued a joint letter to the head of Iran’s judiciary to protest their arrest and to complain that security forces were misrepresenting their attempts to deliver aid in the disaster zone.
Iran’s Prosecutor confirmed the arrests on Monday, adding that the suspects are accused of sabotage.
