Dubai: A prominent press freedom group has joined the US State Department to demand Iran conduct a full investigation into the reported death of a jailed blogger.
Iranian opposition websites this week claimed that Sattar Beheshti died from severe abuses after his arrest last month. Iranian officials have made no comment, but the reports brought calls for a full-scale Iranian probe yesterday from State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said today that Iranian authorities must release full details of the "suspicious death" of the 35-year-old blogger, whose posts were highly critical of the Iranian leadership.
Dozens of bloggers and journalists have been arrested amid widespread crackdowns in Iran in recent years.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, November 11, 2012, 09:22