An Iranian journalist has been arrested after he presented himself to a Tehran court in response to a summons. Neither Soheil Assefi's family nor his lawyers know where he is being held or with what he is charged. Officials from the prosecutor's office searched his home on July 31, taking personal documents and his computer's hard disk.
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the release of Assefi, a journalist who was arrested on August 4. "This situation is unacceptable," RSF said. "He is the third journalist to be arrested in the space of week. His detention brings to 11 the number of journalists and cyber-dissidents held in Iran, which is the Middle East's biggest prison for the press. Iran must stop hounding journalists by bringing trumped-up charges against them."
Assefi's detention was preceded by the arrests of Masoud Bastani and Farshad Gorbanpour, two journalists working for the news website Roozonline and pro-reform newspapers, on July 31. Bastani was freed after several hours, but Gorbanpour was transferred to security section 209 in Tehran's Evin prison on the orders of Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi. Neither was officially charged.
