Iran – Blogger and Political Prisoner Dies Under Torture

Blogger and Political Prisoner, Sattar Beheshti, Killed Under Torture in Iran
Blogger and Political Prisoner, Sattar Beheshti, Killed Under Torture in Iran

Blogger and Political Prisoner, Sattar Beheshti, Killed Under Torture in Iran

Stop Fundamentalism – Iranian opposition sources say that an Iranian blogger and political prisoner by the name of Sattar Beheshti, has died under torture after eight days in custody in Iran.

Beheshti was arrested on October 30, when the Iranian Cyber Police raided his house.  He was taken to an unknown location immediately, says his family.

Sattar Beheshti was previously jailed for participation in the 1999 student uprising in Iran.  He was 35.

Beheshti went under most severe tortures following his arrest, say Iranian opposition sources.  He was severely injured under torture.  But Iranian regime prison officials said that he died due to an illness.  His family says he was quite healthy at the time of arrest.

Before he was arrested, Sattar Beheshti was threatened by unknown individuals.  “Yesterday, they told me to tell my mother that soon she will wear a black dress,” he wrote in his blog just before his arrest.  He received repeated threats by phone or emails and comments on his weblog.  Callers asked him to be silent about regime’s policies. “As an Iranian I say I cannot remain silent in face of all these miseries,” he added in his blog.

About the situation of human rights and political prisoners in Iran, Beheshti wrote, “Arrests, torture, prison and mass executions continue quietly. They put political prisoners in the worst conditions to break them.”

Iran has created the Cyber Police to control internet and flow of information.  Most Social Networks in Iran such as Facebook and YouTube are filtered and not available to domestic users of internet.

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime has executed another 15 prisoner bringing the total of executions to 38 during the past two weeks.  The prisoners were hanged in groups of up to 10 in six different episodes of mass executions.

In total, Iran has executed 373 prisoners so far this year, according to opposition sources.  United Nation’s Rapporteur for Human Rights on Iran, reported earlier this year that over 600 executions had taken place in Iran during 2011.

Observers believe that the Iranian regime, in face of growing international sanctions and an imminent economic collapse in addition to the ongoing infightings among various factions of the government, is heightening its clampdown on the Iranian people and specifically rights activists to prevent any possible protests.

Protester poured into streets of Tehran once again last month, after a nosedive by the value of the country’s currency against foreign money.

The Iranian opposition, National Council of Resistance of Iran, also warns that over a thousand prisoners have been rounded up for execution in Gohardasht prison currently, by a so-called death panel.  They may be subject to a Kangaroo court and rapid execution, in case of any disturbance in the country.