Seven friends and relatives of Iranian political prisoner Ali Saremi are reported to have been detained outside Tehran’s Evin prison where he was hanged on December 28, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

Saremi’s brother Hassan told RFE/RL the family was not notified in advance of his impending execution. He said seven friends and relatives, including Saremi’s sister, wife, daughter, and son-in-law, went to Evin prison after being informed by Ali’s cellmates at Gohardasht prison that he had been suddenly transferred. Hassan Saremi said they were detained there on December 28 by security forces.

According to Iranian state media, Saremi, 62, was found guilty of membership of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), “waging war against God,” and “propaganda activities against the sacred regime of Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“My brother was not a member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization,” Hassan Saremi said. He added that his brother was an MKO “sympathizer”, who traveled to Camp Ashraf in Iraq, the MKO base camp, only to visit his son.

Ali Saremi had been taken into custody several times since 1982, most recently in August 2007 after attending a gathering to mark the anniversary of the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners.