Iran: Detained Journalists Held At Evin Prison

Reports from Iran indicate that Parastoo Dokouhaki and Marzieh Rasouli, two journalists and bloggers who were recently arrested, are being held in the 2-aleph section of Evin Prison.

The two detainees are reportedly being held in solitary confinement in the section of the prison controlled by the Revolutionary Guards.

So far they have been slapped with the general charge of “propaganda against the regime and threatening national security.”

They have not yet been granted access to a lawyer or allowed a visit from their relatives. The families of the detainees, as is customary in similar situations in recent years, have been told to refrain from speaking with the media.

Dokouhaki, a women’s rights activist and one of the first bloggers in Iran, was arrested on January 15 at her home.

Rasouli, a journalist with a history of working with the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) and dailies such as Iran and Shargh, was arrested on January 17.

She had been previously arrested in September of 2010 and banned from travelling abroad. Rasouli had been told that her charge was espionage but, a few weeks before her second arrest this year, she was told that the charges against her had been dropped and she was allowed to acquire a passport.

Several journalists have been arrested in the past month as the Islamic Republic clamps down anew on media activists.