TEHRAN -- Yadollah Sahabi, the father of Ezzatollah Sahabi, went into a coma due to cerebral apoplexy on Thursday. The elder Sahabi is being treated at Pars Hospital in Tehran.

Ezzatollah Sahabi, 75, is a member of the banned Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), and is one of some 60 dissidents, mostly IFM members, who were arrested over the past few months.

He was imprisoned last December for making comments deemed harmful to the country's national interests at Tehran University in November and for attending a controversial conference on the future of reforms in Iran earlier this year in Berlin.

He was allowed to meet with his family members at his father's house last Sunday. According to an IRNA report, Interior Ministry Director General for Political Affairs Mohammad Javad Haqshenas said on Saturday that the Interior Ministry has sought explanations from the Revolutionary Court about the arrests of members of the IFM.

Haqshenas said that in response to the Interior Ministry's concern about the arrest of the IFM members in March, the Revolutionary Court said that the Head of the Justice Department will provide the Interior Ministry with a report, but the Justice Department has not yet given any explanation.