A/HRC/25/61 Before leaving Iran, he was arrested three times for protests (related to, inter alia, workers’ rights): once for five days, once for two, and once for 15. He was always in detention centers, though, and never in prison per se. He was sometimes treated well, for what he believes were “propaganda purposes.” When he went to Dubai, he and other friends in the West and other countries established a blog. The blog was not mostly political; it was meant to expose religious hypocrisy. In Dubai, he protested in front of the Iranian Embassy on three occasions following the events of the 2009 election. Iranian authorities were filming all of the demonstrators from the roof of the building, and, he now presumes, identifying them and looking into their backgrounds. He returned to Iran because his father was gravely ill. (His father eventually died while he was in jail). He was taken to the Ershad Prosecutor’s office (north Tehran). He was kept this time for 43 days before his release. He had two interrogators while in detention. Dr. Sohrab Razaghi Journalist In the (Persian) year 1390 (2011-2012), 84 associations (publications) were shut down. Many publications are closed down without any sort of process, prior notification, or trial, according to Dr. Razzaghi. His own organization was shut down in 2007 in this way, and he was arrested then. Moreover, a number of publications that were shut down under the prior administration have approached the authorities for renewal and been denied on dubious grounds. Neshat, for example, was already cleared of charges during President Ahmadinejad’s second term, and had gone through the whole process of re-registering, but was recently prevented from re-opening through an intervention by the judiciary. Isa Saharkhiz Journalist and former political prisoner Mr. Saharkhiz is a journalist and human rights activist. He was chief of the Iranian news agency (IRNA) in New York from 1992-1997. When Mr. Khatami (a former colleague of his) was elected President, he returned to Iran and become Director-General for all internal newspapers in Iran (part of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance). His plan was to develop journalism by giving permission to an increasing number of publications and through contacts at the international level. He helped found the Association for the Protection of Press Freedom in Iran, “a sort of Iranian equivalent of CPJ,” but more of a trade union for journalists. When “non-reformists” were elected to the Parliament (and later to the Presidency), it became increasingly difficult to work, and he resigned around the time the judiciary began to build a case against him. He worked in the private sector and for the semi-governmental committee which approves media publications. In 2009, this association was shut down, and many of its members were arrested, including him. A number are still in prison, and many have been forced to leave the country. 79