Political prisoners released with approach of Norooz

 

par_0

 

Parvin Mokhtareh, Arya Aramnejad, Alireza Falahati and Ahmad Miri are among the political prisoners who have been temporarily released in Iran.

The Human Rights Reporters Committee reports that Mokhtareh was released on Sunday afternoon after eight months in jail.

She has been charged with “propaganda activities and assembly and collusion against the regime” and sentenced to 23 months in jail, which the appellate court has turned into a suspended sentence.

Mokhtareh is the mother of Kouhyar Goudarzi, a detained journalist and human rights activist, and she was arrested one day after her son was arrested last August.

Her arrest has been linked to the interviews she gave to the media the first time her son was arrested.

Goudarzi has been sentenced to five years in prison in Zabol.

Meanwhile, several social networking sites are carrying reports that Arya Armnejad, the Iranian singer, composer and songwriter, together with Alireza Falahati and Ahmad Miri, have been allowed a furlough from Babol Prison. Reports indicate that more prisoners have been released from this prison to spend the Norooz New Year celebrations with their families.

Aramnejad has been arrested twice in connection with the post-election protests of 2009 and was specifically charged for writing the protest song “Rise Ali!”

Falahati and Miri, two reformist political activists, were also arrested in connection with the post-election protests of 2009, receiving respective prison sentences of six months and one year.

The families of several political prisoners issued a statement recently urging the government to release their kin for the Iranian New Year, which is celebrated on the first day of spring.

Source : Radio Zamaneh