PARIS, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The dissident People's Mujahedin of Iran said one of its members died from alleged torture during his detention in the notorious Gohardasht prison near Tehran.
The PMOI, a listed terrorist group seeking the ouster of the clerical regime in Iran, said in a statement released during the weekend that Abdolreaz Rajabi died Oct. 30 while in custody at the Gohardasht prison.
The group Human Rights Watch in 2007 called on the Iranian government to launch an independent investigation into the deaths of prisoners "under suspicious circumstances" at Gohardasht.
Rajabi was transferred to solitary confinement at the Evin prison in Tehran, known for holding Iranian dissidents, prior to moving to Gohardasht. Iranian-born Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died while undergoing interrogation at Evin in 2003.
The statement from the PMOI says Rajabi managed to phone his family prior to transfer to Gohardasht, but was cut off by the authorities.
He was detained in 2001 by intelligence officials along the border with Iraq and reportedly received shrapnel wounds from a grenade attack during his arrest.
The PMOI in the statement called on the international community to condemn the death and urged the United Nations to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the matter. The militant Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, PJAK, made similar statements in September regarding its prisoners in Iran.
