In a disturbing escalation of pressure on families of political prisoners, Iranian security forces have taken Leila Saremi hostage to force her daughter, Rozita Moazami Goodarzi, surrender herself to authorities.
In the early hours of Wednesday, July 30, 2025, security forces from the Ministry of Intelligence, accompanied by plainclothes agents, raided the home of Farzad Moazami Goodarzi’s father in Borujerd—marking the second such raid in less than ten days. The operation, which took place around 5 a.m., was reportedly aimed at arresting Rozita Moazami Goodarzi, sister of the imprisoned political prisoner.
Rozita Moazami Goodarzi was not present at the time of the raid. Security agents threatened the family, declaring that unless Rozita voluntarily reports to the Intelligence Ministry, her mother—Leila Saremi, who has been in detention since last week—will remain imprisoned under torture as a form of leverage.
No judicial warrant was presented during the raid, and authorities have refused to disclose any legal basis for Rozita’s arrest. This case exemplifies a broader pattern of collective punishment and hostage-taking employed by the Iranian regime to silence dissent and intimidate the families of political prisoners.
In the early hours of Tuesday, July 22, 2025, Leila Saremi, and her husband, Ahmad Moazami Goodarzi, were arrested after being brutally beaten and subsequently transferred to Tircheh Block prison in Borujerd.
Leila is also the mother of Farzad Moazami, a political prisoner born in 1998, who has been held in Tehran’s Fashafouyeh Prison (Ward 2) since April 2023 on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security.” In October 2024, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
