Four university students arrested in Mashhad raid, one remains in custody
Hengaw – Sunday, April 19, 2026
Iranian government forces in Mashhad raided a private social gathering and arrested at least four university students. Three of those detained were later released, while one student, Mohammadparsa Golchin, remains in custody.
According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, armed government forces raided the gathering on the evening of Saturday, April 11, 2026, where 18 students from the University of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti University, Sharif University of Technology and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad had gathered. The attendees were graduates of Iran’s SAMPAD schools for gifted students.
At least four students, all first-year entrants in the 2024 academic year, were arrested: Mohammadparsa Golchin, a literature student at the University of Tehran; Mohammadhassan Khoshchehreh, a law student at the University of Tehran; Ilya Sabourinasab, a social sciences student at the University of Tehran; and Hossein Mahdipanah, an electrical engineering student at Sharif University of Technology.
The student Telegram channel United Students reported that the group had gathered with a former sociology instructor when agents entered without presenting a warrant and used violence and severe beatings during the arrests. Government forces also confiscated the mobile phones of all those present.
Hengaw sources said 14 attendees were released after initial questioning, while the four students were transferred to solitary confinement cells in a detention center.
The four were transferred to the Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Mashhad on Sunday, April 12, where investigators charged them with “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state.”
At the end of the hearing, Khoshchehreh, Sabourinasab and Mahdipanah were temporarily released on bail pending further proceedings.
Golchin, however, remains in detention despite efforts by his family to obtain information, and his exact status after the charges were filed remains unclear.
