Recent news on the status of Haydar-Gholi Soltani

Iran Press News: translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

Student Committee for the Defense of political prisoners

Haydar-Gholi Soltani, retired lawyer who was arrested in mid-September 2005 is now being detained in ward 350 (labor) of Evin prison; though the judiciary has issued a bail hearing for his release, the Ministry of intelligence and security has illegally deleted the judiciary’s ordinance. READ MORE

The 74-year-old Soltani, who is a lifelong supporter of the Old Iranian Tudeh (KGB–run communist) party was charged with acting against the security of the country, according to article 51 of the Islamic law and penal code; according to the explicit medical commission report, Soltani must be released pursuant to the issuance of an unopposed ruling. The medical commission’s report which was forwarded to branch 26 of the revolutionary court by the medical examiner in June this year has been deliberately destroyed and therefore Soltani has been kept in prison illegally.

It is noteworthy that the medical commission was called at the referral of the Islamic revolutionary prosecutor's office.

Soltani, who fought against both the former regime of the Shah and the Islamic regime, has been arrested and imprisoned repeatedly since after Khomeini’s Islamic revolution.