Young Iranian Protester Rearrested after Enduring Torture in Custody

Danial Aghili, a young protester who was tortured while in custody last year and brutally attacked by plainclothes officers in August, has been rearrested in Tehran, IranWire has learned.

Intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) apprehended the 20-year-old man during a raid on his home at approximately 4 a.m. on September 15.

Aghili’s residence was also searched, as well as his father’s.

In a brief phone call to his family, Aghili said he was incarcerated in Evin prison.

Aghili was first arrested on October 11, 2022. He was writing graffiti in support of protests when armed forces tackled him to the ground, put a knife in his pocket and took pictures of him with Molotov cocktails.

He spent nine days in an IRGC-run detention facility during which he endured ice water dousing, hunger and mock executions.

The young man was released from prison on bail on January 24 and summoned to the Evin courthouse on August 26.

After he refused to sign a letter of commitment pledging not to participate in commemorations marking the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, he was followed by two individuals who knocked him off his motorcycle.

Photographs and documents provided to IranWire depict extensive injuries to the right side of Aghili's face, including severe scratches and damage to his eye.

The IranWire source said he sustained fractures to his skull and jawbone. The man remained under medical care and supervision for some time.