United for Iran condemns the arrests of approximately 45 Iranian relief workers and volunteers by government security forces yesterday, August 22, in Haris County East Azerbaijan province. The organization calls for the immediate release of the arrested relief workers and for the Iranian government to stop hindering domestic and international assistance to victims. According to reports, Iranian security forces raided relief camps that contained supplies for earthquake victims, and arrested the workers, some of whom had demanded to see warrants and tried to prevent the confiscation of supplies. This appalling action follows an already poor response to the August 11 natural disaster by the Iranian authorities, which initially refused international aid, and are continuing to impede relief efforts. The website Persian2English has published the following names of arrested relief workers: Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Navid Khanjani, Vahed Kholoosi, Shayan Vahdati, Shima Ghousheh, Misagh Afshar, Vahid Rouhani, Maziar Esmaeilpour, Morteza Esmaeilpour, Hamid Reza Mossayebian, Ali Mohammadi, Mohsen Saemi, Masoud Vafabakhsh, Houman Taheri, Danial Hosseini, Nafiseh Shahidfar, Bahram Shojaie, Mohammad Arjmandi Rad, Esmael Salmanpour, Baghban Bashi, Narges Kheirollahi, Mehdi Salehi, Behrouz Alavi, Milad Panahipour, Sepehrdad Saheban, Esmael Rafati, Amir Ronaghi, Hassan Ronaghi, Jafar Gholami, Kiana Karimpour, Farnaz Ahmadzadeh, Artemiz Varzandeh, Mehrnaz Ahmadzadeh, Amin Ronaghi, Reyhaneh Hesami, Ali Taghdiri, and Sadegh Rezaie Giglu.
United for Iran Calls for Immediate Release of Arrested Earthquake Relief Workers
