The Baran website reports that Iranian security forces have abducted the wife and daughter of political prisoner Mehdi Khazali.

Baran reports that yesterday afternoon, on February 14, as Khazali’s wife and daughter were driving home along Azadi Street, they were surrounded and detained by security forces and taken to an unknown location. So far there has been no information regarding their location or their fate.

Khazali, the head of Hayan Publications and a blogger, is a staunch government critic, currently on a hunger strike in Evin Prison. On Monday he was transferred to the prison infirmary after his health took a critical turn.

He has been sentenced in the preliminary court to 14 years in prison, 10 years in exile and 90 lashes.

Khazali has run a blog consistently subjecting the government to criticism, especially the Ahmadinejad administration.

He has also written open letters to the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to protest the past two years of increasing arrests and persecution of the opposition.

Khazali is the son of the hardline cleric Abolghassem Khazali, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, who has disowned him as his kin.

Source : Radio Zamaneh