January 14, 2010
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Iran arrests father of U.S. think tank scholar
Iranian intelligence agents have arrested the father of a Washington think tank Iran scholar, and confiscated the family's passports, the group said in an alert.
"On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, four agents of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) arrested Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Khalaji, father of Washington Institute Iran scholar Mehdi Khalaji, at the former's home in Qom, Iran," the Washington Institute said in an alert.
"During a violent house search, MOI agents confiscated the Khalaji family's passports -- including that of Mehdi Khalaji's teenage daughter, who lives in Tehran -- and banned all family members from leaving Iran. Government agents also confiscated personal files, books, letters, a computer, and a satellite receiver."
The group said the family has not been informed of where the elder Khalaji is being held.
"My father is a pious religious scholar who has always sought a peaceful solution to the problems facing Iran," Mehdi Khalaji said. "It is a sad day for the people of Iran when its government harasses and arrests a humble cleric and deprives him and his family -- including my own young daughter -- of the universal right to travel beyond the borders of their country."
In a statement expressing deep concern at Ayatollah Khalaji's arrest, the chair and ranking members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a statement criticizing the regime's intimidation of clerical critics. "The American people stand with all those inside and outside of Iran who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law," Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said.
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