[JURIST] Faezah Hashemi [The Iranian profile], the daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was arrested on Saturday and taken to Evin Prison to serve a six-month prison sentence. Faezah Hashemi, an outspoken critic of Iran’s incumbent government, was arrested [RFE/RL report] upon returning from a trip to London. She was sentenced [JURIST report] in January to a six-month prison term after she was convicted of spreading propaganda [Guardian report] against the country’s regime. This conviction is believed to have been prompted by an interview [text] she gave to the opposition website Roozonline, in which she criticized supporters of the Iranian regime. During the disputed 2009 elections, Faezah Hashemi supported the candidate opposing current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile] and participated in protests contesting the election results.
In August UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] expressed concern [press release] about Iran’s human rights conditions and nuclear program during a visit to Tehran. Faezah Hashemi is one of several opposition figures that have been detained and charged in connection with the wave of civil unrest following the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad. In December Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced opposition figure [JURIST report] and former Iranian foreign minister Ebrahim Yazdi to eight years in prison for attempting to act against national security. Yazdi was also banned from civic activities for five years in the closed-door trial reportedly held in early November. In August Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said that approximately 100 people imprisoned for their participation in the massive 2009 presidential election protests have been pardoned and released [JURIST report] by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [official profile]. In March 2011 Iranian opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and Mehdi Karroubi [NYT profile; JURIST news archive] and their wives were arrested and jailed [JURIST report].