Iran: Jailed Activist Goes On Hunger Strike
Peyman Aref, the jailed Iranian journalist and activist, has been on a hunger strike for four days.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that he began his hunger strike in protest against his “illegal” imprisonment.
In the past few years, Aref has been arrested three times by the authorities. He was first arrested in March of 2010 in Behsht-e Zahra Cemetery with a number of other political activists while visiting the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who was shot to death during the street demonstrations that followed the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
He was released the next day, only to be arrested two days later and sentenced to a year in prison, 74 lashes and a lifetime ban from journalism and all forms of political activity for “acting against national security and insulting the president.”
Aref served out his sentence and received 74 lashes before his release last October.
He was arrested again on March 14, 2012, and the charges against him this time have not been announced yet.
