Iran arrests second dissident who risked interview with Canadian newspaper
Sep 9, 2004, 13:55
Ottawa Citizen
46-year-old grabbed outside UN offices
By Michael Petrou
A second Iranian dissident who risked his life to speak with a reporter from the Ottawa Citizen in Iran this spring has been arrested and jailed by security forces of the Islamic regime.
Bina Darabzand was arrested on August 17th outside the offices of the United Nations in Tehran, where he and several other dissidents had gone to ask the international organization to help persecuted Iranian democrats.
Mr. Darabzand, 46, met several times with this reporter in Tehran this April, putting himself at danger on each occasion. He is a cheerful and strongly-built man with a greying moustache and thick wavy hair. He spends hours on the road, driving across Iran from his home on the Black Sea coast to meet with other dissidents.
A middle-aged man among student activists in their 20s, Mr. Darabzand has campaigned for political change in Iran since 1979.
Mr. Darabzand has been arrested several times before. This spring he described the mental torture he suffered while interrogated during a previous arrest.
"At first I wouldn?t tell them anything," he said. "Then they told me what they'd do to my wife. I told them what they wanted to hear."
Among those arrested with Mr. Darabzand is Behrouz Javid Tehrani, a young democratic crusader who also secretly met with this reporter in April.
Mr. Tehrani has been arrested four times since his story was originally published in the Ottawa Citizen.
He is now in solitary confinement in cellblock 209 of Tehran's Evin prison, where he was tortured over a 10-month period in 1999 and 2000, and where Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was murdered last summer.
It is impossible for Mr. Tehrani to get messages to anyone outside the prison from the solitary wing. However, late last week a prisoner in another cellblock reported hearing Mr. Tehrani screaming to protest his lack of cigarettes, which suggests he is still alive.
Mr. Darabzand is reportedly alive as well.
Ottawa Citizen
46-year-old grabbed outside UN offices
By Michael Petrou
A second Iranian dissident who risked his life to speak with a reporter from the Ottawa Citizen in Iran this spring has been arrested and jailed by security forces of the Islamic regime.
Bina Darabzand was arrested on August 17th outside the offices of the United Nations in Tehran, where he and several other dissidents had gone to ask the international organization to help persecuted Iranian democrats.
Mr. Darabzand, 46, met several times with this reporter in Tehran this April, putting himself at danger on each occasion. He is a cheerful and strongly-built man with a greying moustache and thick wavy hair. He spends hours on the road, driving across Iran from his home on the Black Sea coast to meet with other dissidents.
A middle-aged man among student activists in their 20s, Mr. Darabzand has campaigned for political change in Iran since 1979.
Mr. Darabzand has been arrested several times before. This spring he described the mental torture he suffered while interrogated during a previous arrest.
"At first I wouldn?t tell them anything," he said. "Then they told me what they'd do to my wife. I told them what they wanted to hear."
Among those arrested with Mr. Darabzand is Behrouz Javid Tehrani, a young democratic crusader who also secretly met with this reporter in April.
Mr. Tehrani has been arrested four times since his story was originally published in the Ottawa Citizen.
He is now in solitary confinement in cellblock 209 of Tehran's Evin prison, where he was tortured over a 10-month period in 1999 and 2000, and where Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was murdered last summer.
It is impossible for Mr. Tehrani to get messages to anyone outside the prison from the solitary wing. However, late last week a prisoner in another cellblock reported hearing Mr. Tehrani screaming to protest his lack of cigarettes, which suggests he is still alive.
Mr. Darabzand is reportedly alive as well.
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