Iran returns two activists to jail for 'plotting against national security'

Two Iranian activists have been returned to jail on suspicion of "plotting against national security" while on provisional release, media in the Islamic republic said on Thursday.

One of them, Kevyan Samimi, who is close to the nationalist and religious opposition, is a veteran dissident who served jail time both before and after the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Samimi "has been sent back to prison at the end of his furlough for resuming his activities against national security and his contacts with counter-revolutionary groups abroad," Mehr news agency said.

The 73-year-old journalist had been granted prison leave on medical grounds in late February. He had been serving a three-year sentence in Semnan, nearly 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of the capital.

"The medical examiner ordered his return to prison after a new examination," Mehr said.

State news agency IRNA said women's rights and labour activist Narges Mansouri was also arrested.

Mansouri had been detained in August 2019 before being released on bail in November that year, reports said.

She was later accused of giving "provocative interviews with the aim of starting riots" in the country, IRNA said.

She was alleged to have "committed acts against the security during her two and a half years of provisional release", said the agency.

It added that she had "tried to flee the country... after having learned that the judiciary was going to return her to prison".

Earlier this week, Mehr reported the arrest of Tehran academic Saeed Madani Ghahfarokhi on suspicion of "maintaining links abroad and carrying out activities that threaten national security".

Madani Ghahfarokhi is a sociology professor at the capital's Allameh Tabatabai University.