The mother of a leading Iranian-Australian protester has been jailed in Tehran and interrogated about her Australian relatives in what her family and experts fear is part of a wider attempt to silence Australia’s pro-democracy protesters.
Her Melbourne-based family members, who requested anonymity due to fear of retribution against their mother, told this masthead she was arrested on December 20 by government forces that have killed an estimated 520 protesters, arrested nearly 20,000 and began executing demonstrators.
“She was at her work and four plain-clothed officers showed up and abducted her,” her son said. “My brother went everywhere trying to find her. They said ‘we haven’t arrested her, we don’t know anything’.
“Then after two days she called and said she is … at Evin Prison. My mother made clear to my brother they have asked many questions about us. We have been very active [in demonstrations] here.”
In a separate case, local Iranian-Australian lawyer Nos Hosseini revealed one of her relatives had been detained and another had been interrogated. Both were questioned about relatives’ actions in Australia, she said.
The reports provide the first known examples of the Iranian regime taking action against the relatives of participants in the Australian branch of a global protest movement seeking regime change in the Islamic theocracy.
Read the article by Paul Sakkal in The Sydney Morning Herald.