A Former Governor Arrested in Iran

IHR had earlier published an audio file of chief Justice of Etahban, Hojjat al-Eslam Ali KHorshidi’s speech during Friday prayer on February 23 for the first time.
In his speech, Khorshidi criticized the mention of the protests against compulsory Hijab during the meeting of the sixth General Assembly of the Reformists in Estahban and said, “…Achieving this form of Hijab was not easy, and it cannot be changed easily either.”
Estahban’s authorities and political activists were present at the aforesaid meeting and according to IHR sources, “Some people criticized the regime’s policies and also the Reformists who had held the meeting.”
In his speech on February 23, khorshidi said, “If two thousand people protest against the system, Shariah, and religion in Estahban, should we arrest all of them?”
Mohammad Mobasheri, one of the participants in the meeting of the sixth General Assembly of the Reformists in Estahban who had criticized compulsory Hijab, was arrested. Other people including Amin Bazrgar, Hassan Rouhani’s chief of staff in Estahban for 2017 elections; Jafar Jesmani, a retired teacher; Alireza Bazrgar and Seyyed Reza Hamedi were also arrested and interrogated.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for IHR, said, “The sole purpose of imposing such medieval punishments as flogging and amputation in public is causing fear among civil protesters. On the verge of Human Rights Council meeting, we call on the International Community to stop the Iranian regime from implementing such medieval sentences in public.”