His death is being reported by sources close to Iran's Green Wave movement. Arrested on national security charges, the 35-year-old man was Active on Facebook. His body is said to show signs of beating and torture. He was held at Kahrizak, a detention centre where many activists are raped or die under torture.

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Websites associated with Iranian opposition are reporting that Iranian blogger Sattar Beheshti died in custody from torture. His family said that prison authorities called them by phone asking them to collect his body from the Kahrizak Detention Centre. Police had arrested him in his home town of Robat-Karim on national security charges on 30 October. A well known human rights activist, the 35-year-old Beheshti used Facebook to spread his ideas.

"They threatened me yesterday that my mother would wear black because I don't shut my mouth," he wrote in one of his last post. Sahamnews, a website close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, reported that Beheshti was beaten and tortured several times in Evin prison, this according to witnesses who spoke to the family. His body showed bruises and wounds consistent with torture.

Beheshti's sister said that officials called her husband, telling him to buy a grave and pick up his body. "We know nothing else," she said. "We don't know why they killed him, or what exactly happened. We don't know what happened. My brother was well when he left the house. He left on his own two feet. Everyone saw that he was healthy. My brother didn't even take headache pills. [. . .] They said he had heart problems!"

According to the opposition, many activists have died under torture in Kahrizak. Others have said they were raped in the facility. An Iranian doctor who examined some of the people who came out of the prison was shot dead in September 2010.

The Kahrizak Detention Centre embarrassed the Iranian regime when it was revealed that Mohsen Rouholamini, the son of a former senior adviser to the Revolutionary Guards, was among the prisoners who had died in the prison.

Established in January 2011 to "prevent espionage and sabotage," according to an official statement, Iran's cyber police force now has units in every province in the country.

Recently, Iranian authorities arrested many activists who rely on Facebook to spread their protest. Although Iran has blocked the social networking service, millions of Iranians are able to access through proxies or private networks.

 

• iran
• sattar
• beheshti
• blogger
• arrest
• death
• censorship