Jailed Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has reportedly been beaten by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The blogger’s mother, Zoleykha Mousavi told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran yesterday: “Today they called us from prison and told us that an intelligence officer of the Guards had beaten our son in a meeting. We were told that he had passed out and after some hours, he had been transferred to Taleghani Hospital.”
Mousavi speculated that her son was beaten for writing a critical letter to Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, complaining about the judiciary’s indifference to his physical condition and its refusal to grant him leave to seek treatment outside prison.
Mousavi added: “They want to kill our son and they have told us many times that ‘we will kill Hossein.’” Ronaghi Maleki’s father has made similar accusations against judicial and prison authorities, such as: “My son’s interrogators told me in a telephone conversation that they would kill Hossein, and now they are proving themselves right.”
Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, who ran a blog under the name of Babak Khorramdin, was arrested during the crackdown on those who insisted that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2009 re-election was tainted by vote fraud.
He was arrested in December of 2009 and held in solitary confinement for about 300 days, according to his parents. A preliminary court sentenced him to 15 years in prison, which was later confirmed by the appellate court.
Zoleykha Mousavi says the Tehran prosecutor has set a million-dollar bail for her son’s release. The Revolutionary Guards have said he also must sign a letter of repentance.
