Tehran: Iran’s official news agency is reporting that a parliamentary committee will probe the alleged death of a jailed blogger.
The Sunday report by IRNA quotes deputy parliamentary speaker Mohammad Hasan Abutorabifard as saying that the influential parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy has been assigned to look into the reported death of Sattar Beheshti.
This is the first Iranian reaction to the reports. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said on Saturday that Iranian authorities must release full details of the “suspicious death” of the 35-year-old blogger, and the State Department has also called for a probe.
Dozens of bloggers and journalists have been arrested amid widespread crackdowns in Iran in recent years.
