LONDON: Iranian journalist Hadi Pourbeheshti has been detained by state authorities since his arrest during a raid on his home in Iran’s southeastern Kerman province on Aug. 28, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.
The property in the city of Kerman was ransacked by Iranian police, who arrested Pourbeheshti and rifled through his belongings while his family looked on, an Iranian rights group claimed.
Pourbeheshti’s arrest was confirmed by Human Rights in Iran, an exiled-based rights group, as well as by Iranian journalist Hassan Abbasi via Twitter, and a source familiar with the case, who spoke to the CPJ on condition of anonymity due to fears of state violence.
The CPJ said that during the journalist’s arrest, “security forces ransacked the entire house, confiscating all electronic devices, including his cellphone and his wife’s cellphone.”
Pourbeheshti is a political opinion writer who contributes to several local publications in Kerman.
On Friday, the CPJ said that he was still detained without charge at an undisclosed location, adding that he has not been allowed to contact his family, a common punishment for journalists in Iran.
Authorities told Pourbeheshti’s family that he is facing “security and anti-state charges, including espionage,” according to the anonymous source.
The source added that police scared bystanders away during the raid, creating an atmosphere of fear and stopping people from capturing the incident on their mobile phones or reporting the arrest to local media.
“Iranian authorities must learn that arresting journalists without charge is not the answer to hiding the country’s problems,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York.
“The authorities must free journalist Hadi Pourbeheshti immediately, and unconditionally and cease the practice of arbitrarily locking up members of the press.”
Pourbeheshti’s recent work has criticized government officials in Kerman, questioning the large number of embezzlement cases involving government departments in the city.
Kerman province has strong ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Several IRGC commanders are reported to have been given positions within local government, with Pourbeheshti’s journalism possibly being viewed as criticism of the corps, according to the CPJ.
