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| Asghar Akbarzadeh |
Asghar Akbarzadeh, a student at the Faculty of Chemistry of Ardabil Payame Noor University in Iran, was arrested on June 9. Since then, his family has had no news of him.
In an interview with "Azadlıq" (Liberty) Radio, the detainee's mother, Hamayil Azizi, stated that her son was unjustly arrested in front of the university during the peak of the exam season.
Akbarzadeh is known as an activist in the movement for the right to education in the Azerbaijani Turkish language. He was previously arrested following the May 2006 events and was released after paying a fine of 600,000 tomans (approximately $700).
After that, in September 2006, he was sentenced to four months in prison for distributing slogans such as "School in Turkish" during the opening of schools. Amnesty International issued urgent statements twice in defense of the Azerbaijani activist's rights. Akbarzadeh completed his sentence in April 2008 and returned to university.
Hamayil Azizi suspects that her son may be on a hunger strike. According to his mother, Akbarzadeh's only crime was demanding education in the Azerbaijani Turkish language.
Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution recognizes the right of all people living in the country to receive education in their own language. However, Azerbaijanis and other ethnic minorities in Iran do not have schools in their mother tongue.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
«Onun yeganə günahı ana dilində təhsil istəməsidi»