Iran: Majid Tavakoli, one of the figures of the dissidents, released after three months in prison

Tehran, May 17, 2022. © AFP

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Iranian authorities have released one of the country's most prominent dissidents from prison, three months after his arrest in connection with protests that have rocked Iran for several weeks, the dissident's brother announced on Monday.

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Majid Tavakoli was released on bail from Evin prison in Tehran after spending 89 days behind bars, his brother Mohsen wrote on the social network Twitter on Monday evening.

,” said Mohsen Tavakoli, posting a photo of his brother outside the prison clutching a bouquet of flowers.

#مجيد_توكلى دیشب بعد از ۸۹ روز زندان با قید وثیقه آزاد شد

شادیم ازین خبر ولی شادیمون زمانی تکمیل میشه که همه عزیزانی که در ز٨ند؆ آ

به امید آزادی#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/cwa7z1T21D

— mohsen_tavakoli (@M_tavakoli_18) December 20, 2022

Dissident Majid Tavakoli had been detained shortly after the start of anti-regime demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish boy who died after his arrest in Tehran by the morality police who accused him of having violated the strict dress code requiring women to wear the veil in public.

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Majid Tavakoli, a recognized activist

In response to the wave of protests that followed, Iranian authorities arrested various high-profile figures – lawyers, actors, cultural figures, journalists and activists – as part of a crackdown that, according to the UN, led to the arrest of at least 14,000 people.

Majid Tavakoli is one of these figures and today enjoys great respect within the activist sphere.

The dissident has spent much of the past 15 years bouncing back and forth in prison and gained notoriety as a student leader in 2009 during massive protests following the country's disputed presidential elections.

In 2013, he won the student peace prize, awarded every two years in Norway.

Other influential activists still in prison

However, several other influential activists currently remain in prison, starting with lawyer and human rights defender Mostafa Nili, arrested in November.

The two Iranian journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who helped publicize the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, have been detained since September.

And the imprisonments continue, with the arrest on Saturday of the famous Iranian actress and ardent activist for women's rights

, after she supported the protest movement, which has now entered its fourth month.

(With

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