Student protesters Ibrahim Moradi and Matin Khaledi, who were detained during the December-January protests in Urmia, were transferred to Urmia Central Prison after the end of their interrogations. They are currently being kept in the Youth Section of the prison.
Ibrahim Moradi, who is a biology student, was arrested on December 31 by the Intelligence Department of the Revolutionary Guards Corps. He was transferred to prison after 16 days in a solitary cell in the RGC Intelligence Detention Center on January 16. Matin Khaledi was arrested on December 30 by the Intelligence Agency and after six days of interrogations and solitary confinement, he was transferred to Urmia Prison on January 5.
Notably dozens of university students and young human rights defenders, have already been detained and denied freedom.
Alireza Rahimi, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in the regim’s parliament, was cited The state-run ILNA news agency on February 2, as saying that according to Asghar Jahangir, head of the National Prisons Organization, “the total number of those detained during the incidents in January amounts to 4972 people, 94.73 percent of whom are men and 5.27 per cent are women. 438 of them remain in detention. Another 55 persons are detained by the Ministry of Intelligence.”
