Iran: Gathering in front of Tehran's Evin prison seeks freedom for lawyer Zarafshan

Payvand:

A group of human rights activists and representatives of "Union of Advocates of Democracy" gathered in front of Evin prison on Saturday calling for an end to detention of lawyer Nasser Zarafshan. They joined sit-in protest of Zarafshan's family and other human rights activists staged since last Wednesday calling for freedom of lawyer Zarafshan.

Spokesman for "Union of Advocates of Democracy" Shahla Entessari said that if their sit-in protest could not reach its objective, they would look for other methods to convey their grievances about continued detention of Zarafshan and Ganji. READ MORE

She said that human rights activists support the Zarafshan family's demand for his freedom from prison.

Journalist Akbar Ganji also joined the sit-in protest.

Zarafshan, defending families of victims of serial murders which shocked the country in 1998, perpetrated by rogue agents of the Ministry of Information was sentenced to five years in prison for the charge of so-called "disclosure of secrets".

Immediately, after the murders of the intellectuals, the then minister of information Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi resigned from his post and President Mohammad Khatami assigned the Information Ministry to identify those responsible for the murders.

Ministry of Information condemned the killings and vowed to bring those involved in the serial murders to justice.

After a while, the ministry acknowledged that rogue agents within intelligence apparatus were responsible for murders of the intellectuals and nationalist political activist Darioush Foruhar and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari.

The rogue agents were handed over to the Judiciary.