The head of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission announced today, November 12, that according to the “preliminary information” it has gathered in the case of Sattar Beheshti, the blogger who was allegedly killed under torture while in custody, there were no signs of beatings on his body.
Earlier, 41 political prisoners from section 350 of Evin Prison had published a letter, which testified that “when Sattar Beheshti was brought to section 350 of Evin, signs of torture were all over his body and he was injured and in pain.”
A day after Parliament announced that a committee has been created to probe into the death of the jailed blogger, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Parliament, stated that no signs of torture were reported on Beheshti’s body.
Yesterday, outspoken MP Ahmad Tavakoli criticized the silence of officials in the face of growing outrage regarding the news of Sattar Beheshti’s death while in custody.
The Khaneh Mellat website reported today that security forces of the Islamic Republic will appear at a committee meeting today to give their report on the Beheshti case. Boroujerdi stressed that the probe into the blogger’s death is a sensitive matter that must be followed with diligence.
Yesterday, the head of Islamic Republic Human Rights Commission announced that the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, has issued a special order to investigate the death of Sattar Beheshti.
Beheshti, a 35-year-old blogger, was arrested by cyber police on October 30 and later died due to torture, according to reports on opposition websites. He was reportedly taken into custody and charged with “acting against national security through activities on internet social networks and Facebook.”
Some reports indicate that he was buried in Robat Karim in Tehran without his family present.
In recent years, there have been several cases of prisoners dying while in custody in Iranian prisons, including Hoda Saber, Mohsen Ruholamini, Mohammad Kamriani, Amir Javadifar, Ramin Aghazadeh Ghahremani, Zahra Kazemi, Zahra Bani Yaghoub, Akbar Mohammadi and Omidreza Mirsiafi.
Ahmad Tavakoli called on the judiciary yesterday to abandon the crackdown on bloggers and concentrate on dealing with corrupt government officials.
