Ahmad Seyyed Saraj Has Escaped into Turkey

Curt, The Committee to Protect Bloggers:

Ahmad Seyyed Saraj has escaped Iran to the Turkish city of Van, according to S'CAN-IRANIC.

Seraji, in an interview with Tabriz News Agency's Human Rights Bureau (here), confirmed that he had escaped Iran to Turkey illegally, as he did not possess any valid passport. He has already approached the United Nations High Commissioner's office in the city of Van, in eastern Turkey.

He clarified that overall he would be subjected to three years of incarceration. He clarified that his earlier two-year suspended conviction that he had received was mainly because he had enchained himself to the entrance door of the UN mission in Tehran about two years ago. READ MORE

More importantly, Seraji added that during his arrest, in the summer of 2005, he was kept in the same part of the prison with inmates who were accused of murder, drug-trafficking, and other crimes. Later on, he was moved to another detention centre and was beaten up and tortured. His torturers told him that they could easily cut his veins so that it would appear that he had committed suicide!

I again call for all free-spirited people in the blogosphere to throw their support for Iranian webloggers, and especially Seyyed Ahmad Seyyed Seraji Tabrizi, who is now a fugitive in the city of Van in Turkey.

If any of our members are in Turkey, or are involved with their governments in a way that they could secure help for Ahmad, please contact us at committeetoprotectbloggers[at]gmail[dot]com.