PARIS: Prominent Iranian activist Ghorban Behzadian-Nejad was arrested for his contribution to a statement critical of Iran’s authorities, written in the wake of their deadly crackdown on protests, the reformist daily Shargh reported on Saturday.
Several public figures who supported and signed the statement have been arrested in recent days, including filmmaker Mehdi Mahmoudian, co-writer on the film “It Was Just an Accident”, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes festival.
“We call for holding a free, transparent referendum... with the aim of establishing a national and inclusive government and enabling a democratic transition,” read the text by Mir Hossein Mousavi, a leading figure of the Iranian opposition and former prime minister, under house arrest since 2011.
Behzadian-Nejad, who was part of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s 2009 campaign, “was arrested at his home this afternoon”, Shargh wrote on Saturday.
“He is one of the signatories of the statement known as the ‘Statement of 17’,” Shargh added.
Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, as well as Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been imprisoned since December, are also signatories to the text.
Student leader Abdollah Momeni and journalist and women’s rights activist Vida Rabbani were arrested in recent days, according to the Iranian news agency Fars.
These arrests come after the Islamic republic’s bloody crackdown on a wave of protests that erupted in December and peaked on January 8 and 9.
Iranian authorities acknowledge the deaths of thousands of people but maintain that the vast majority were security forces or bystanders killed by “terrorists” acting on behalf of Tehran’s arch-foes the United States and Israel.
