Sattar Beheshti, a political activist who was arrested for "actions against national security", is believed to have died under torture while being interrogated in Tehran, Iran.
UPDATE: Sattar Beheshti’s family and his fellow inmate have been harassed for their statements in the investigation launched into Beheshti’s death. (Reporters without Borders, 26 November 2012)
(RSF/IFEX) – 8 November 2012 – Reporters Without Borders is deeply shocked to learn of the death two days ago of the netizen Sattar Beheshti, six days after he was arrested and taken into custody in Tehran. His family learned of the tragic news in a message to his mother asking her to collect the body the next day. Beheshti was believed to have died under torture while he was being interrogated.
Reporters Without Borders urges the Iranian authorities to clarify the exact circumstances of the netizen’s death and calls on the international community not to allow this crime to go unpunished.
“The Tehran government is an egregious example of the triumph of impunity,” the press freedom organization said. “Up to now, no one responsible for the deaths in detention of any journalists or netizens has been brought to justice.”
“We ask that the special UN rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, be allowed to enter Iran to conduct an independent investigation into this death and other similar cases.”
Beheshti, a 35-year-old worker and political activist, was arrested at his home on 30 October by the FTA, Iran’s cyber police, for “actions against national security on social networks and Facebook”, before being taken to an unknown location. Security officers seized his computer. Beheshti was known to the police and had already been arrested during the student riots in 2002.
According to information received by Reporters Without Borders, the family came under pressure to bury the body quickly and was ordered under threat not to inform the media.
