A former advisor to the governor of Iran’s Fars Province has been arrested, sources told the Green Voice of Freedom today.

Jamileh Karimi, a former advisor to the governor of Fars Province during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, was arrested at her home on Wednesday morning and taken to a prison run by the Intelligence Bureau of Shiraz.

Karimi is also a member of her province’s Reformist Coalition. She was a signatory to a recent letter signed by 91 prominent pro-reform urging former President Mohammad Khatami to participate in the upcoming presidential elections on 14 June.

The former ministers, legislators and government officials had called on Khatami to help lead Iran out of the current crisis by announcing his candidacy for the presidential race.

The former president’s candidacy has drawn considerable attention in recent weeks, in particular following the publication of a lengthy article by Oxford sociology student Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour. The young activist, who spent many months behind bars following the contested 2009 presidential election, had listed forty reasons why he believed a Khatami candidacy would be the reformist movement’s best possible option vis-à-vis this June’s ballot.

Source: GVF