Iran launches probe into prison death of blogger

Parliament has launched a probe into the death in detention of an Iranian blogger and will make its report public, the ISNA news agency on Sunday cited deputy speaker Mohammad Hassan Abutorabi as saying. Opposition activists say blogger Sattar Beheshti, 35, was tortured to death in prison for criticising Iran's regime on the Internet. "The national security commission is aware of this case and has begun an investigation," Abutorabi was quoted as saying. "I have asked the head of the commission, Aladin Borujerdi, to inform parliamentarians and the public once the investigation is completed," he added. According to opposition groups, Beheshti's family was asked on November 7 to collect his body from the Kahrizak detention centre in Tehran, where he had been held since being arrested at the end of October after criticising the government on the Internet. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in July 2009 ordered the temporary closure of the Kahrizak detention centre after three inmates died following mistreatment by guards. Several of its officials were prosecuted. Beheshti, in the last blog he wrote before his arrest, had said he was being constantly harassed by members of the security services phoning him. "Yesterday they threatened to tell my mother that she would soon be wearing black if I did not shut up," he wrote in one post. France and the United States last week called on Iran to investigate the circumstances of Beheshti's death after rights group Amnesty International said he may have died under torture. "Iranian authorities must immediately carry out an independent investigation into his death, including whether torture played a part in it," said Ann Harrison, Amnesty's Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director. "Fears that Sattar Beheshti died as a result of torture in an Iranian detention facility, after apparently lodging a complaint about torture are very plausible, given Iran's track record when it comes to deaths in custody," she added. Washington said it was "appalled by reports" that the blogger was "tortured and killed" while in prison. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Beheshti was "arrested for a crime no greater than expressing his political opinion online." A French foreign ministry spokesman said Paris was "profoundly shocked" to have learned of Beheshti's death in custody. "We call on the Iranian authorities to shed as much light as possible on the circumstances of his death," he said. Outspoken conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli joined in the criticism on Sunday, Mehr news agency reported. "Why doesn't the judicial apparatus give explanations? There has been a death and it must be explained," he said, charging that foreign governments were exploiting the case for propaganda purposes against Iran. Tavakoli also criticised the regime's repression of bloggers, saying they would do better "to fight against corruption rather than making life difficult for bloggers." Hundreds of opposition figures -- politicians, journalists, bloggers, lawyers, rights activities, union figures and media workers -- are being held in Iran, according to international human rights groups.