Saba Azarpeyk

Saba Azarpeyk  is a journalist and parliament reporter who has been working with media sites and newspapers such as Etemad and magazines such as  Shahrvand and Tejarat-e-Farda as well as news website, Baztabe- Emruz.

She’s got incomplete MA degree in politics from Karaj Azad University and has been working in journalism since she started her profession as a journalist  with Cultural Heritage Agency.

She has been harassed several times just due to her discharging of duty as a journalist. In one occasion she was beaten by Guidance Petrol Police ( Gashte Ershad) officers which resulted in a formal complaint on behalf of her against the police.

Arrest

Saba Azarpeyk  was arrested during a massive and orchestrated arrest of journalists on January the 27^th.

In the same day four news agency offices, Bahar, Shargh, Etemad, Arman and weekly paper Aseman were raided by Intelligence Service officers who arrested twelve journalists after inspecting the premises and confiscating their computers.

At 8 o’clock pm on the same date eight Intelligence officers arrested Saba in street and took her home a while after she had left it. At the door, she asked her family not to open the door unless they provide their judicial home search warrant.

Saba’s mother describes the story in an interview as this: “It was 15-20 minutes after Saba had left home that there knock on the door, I asked who was it and I heard Saba saying “they don’t have judicial warrant to search the house, don’t open the door”. They didn’t have the judicial warrant to come inside. They made tensions at the door before taking Saba into their car. I thought they all had gone, my son went to door unaware of one of the officers who had stayed behind the door. He slapped my son in face and when my son asked what he was slapped for, he answered “You’re making fuss”. The officer was beating and punching my son to stimulate reaction from him so they can take film of him. My son being quite aware of their intensions was just saying “What’s wrong? Why are you beating me?” They were pretending nothing serious had happened. Before my son entered the house it was absolute silence inside, all of a sudden the officer brought his head inside through the half-opened door saying “Why are you cursing us? Stop insulting us, lady”. It was absolute silence inside the home after Saba’s arrest and I was totally distracted wondering what to do but this officer was telling me so. I told him he was taking film waiting for any reaction or tension on behalf of us after Saba’s arrest”.

Following Saba Azarpeyk and other journalists’ arrest Reporters Without Border Organization made an announcement asking for the release of journalists arrested on “Black Sunday”:

“Reporters Without Border Organization demands the unconditioned release of all Iranian political prisoners. Iranian authorities must stop their arbitrary and incessant arrests, the only goal of which is to guarantee the stability and survival of the System. The only conclusion of these acts is just failure”.

The Ministry of Intelligence made an announcement on Wednesday January the 11^th , in which they quoted some odd and unreal charges against Saba and other journalists claiming they have managed to detect one of the biggest media networks connected to the Arrogance media campsite”. In this announcement they wrote:

“This network was constructed by British organization of mental operations (called BBC) using the experiences they obtained during 2009 intrigue segment and administrated by some Western governments. It was an expanded and multi-layered network benefiting from special communication methods and tools in transmitting news and at the words of command of foreign agents. They were controlled and chased by the unknown soldiers of Imam-e-Zaman  who managed to complete the circle of identification of  internal and external agents, collect  information and provide judicial documentation against them. Legal action will be taken against them.”