The Strange Issue of the Arrest of National-Religious Activists

Abdollah Abdi - Abdi Media

In Esfand 1379 (February-March 2001), about 40 people present at a meeting in the home of Basteh Negar, the son-in-law of Ayatollah Taleghani, were arrested by the Intelligence Unit of the Revolutionary Guards on charges of soft overthrow and were interrogated and ultimately tried. You can see parts of the introduction and judicial-security intent in Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's diaries.

Among those arrested were Ezzatollah Sahabi, Habibollah Peyman, Mohammad Maleki, Mohammad Basteh Negar, Reza Raisi Tusi, Mohammad Mohammadi Ardehali, Saeed Madani, Hoda Saber, Taghi Rahmani, Reza Alijani, Mohammad Mohammadi Gorganb, Morteza Kazemian, Mahmoud Omrani, Alireza Rajai, Hossein Rafiei, and Masoud Pedram.

Later, Hassan Yousefi Eshkouri, who had previously been arrested and was serving his detention in the special clerical ward of Evin Prison, was transferred to the security detention center 59 of the Guards, adding to this group.

The sentences issued by Judge Hassan Dehnoei Zareh, known as Judge Haddad, were halted at the appeal stage, and the outcome of the trial was never properly communicated to the defendants in this strange case.

Five years later, Ahmad Sadr Haj Seyed Javadi, the Minister of Justice in the provisional government and a member of the central council of the Freedom Movement, wrote a letter to Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the then-head of the judiciary, requesting follow-up on the unclear status of the arrested individuals' case and wrote:

"You have said somewhere that we must preserve the principles and insist on them and expand the foundations of belief and justice in society. However, unfortunately, many people, including several families of members and supporters of the Freedom Movement of Iran, as well as a number of families of national-religious activists and their relatives who have put their real estate ownership documents as collateral in the Revolutionary Court for the release of those arrested in 1380 (2001), how can they believe these statements?

The families of national-religious activists have been trying to retrieve the collateral they put up for the release of their loved ones since 1381 (2002) and now need to sell or change it. They have made efforts to convert the collateral into a bail bond, but so far, they have not succeeded. Whenever they refer to any authority, they are referred to another agency, and thus they remain in limbo and despair. Of course, I do not discuss the original accusation against this group, namely soft overthrow, which the respected former Minister of Intelligence declared to be incorrect; I do not speak about the dire conditions of these individuals in solitary confinement or the manner of their trial and conviction in the courts."