Some "80 members of the Iranian gay community" were arrested last Thursday by the police in Esfahan, according to emails being circulated on various gay email groups.

Quoting the Toronto-based IRanian Queer Organization, the arrests are said to have been made at 10pm on May 10 when police raided a residence where a birthday party was in progress. The police had allegedly assaulted the host who was identified only as Farhad, his parents, and all the guests before they were taken into custody.

The email quoted a quest, Peyman, who related the incidence to the organisation by phone: "I went to buy a gift for Farhad and so I arrived late for the party. As soon as I turned in to their street, I saw police cars parked everywhere; all my friends were arrested while seven or eight policeman beat them with batons. Fearing the usual punishments for attending a party, two had jumped from the second-floor window and were in a bad condition. Farhad's family were also arrested. Everyone was transported into a big car and taken into custody. All their cell phones are off and we have no information about the situation inside the jail."

Another guest at the party, Kia, was quoted as saying: "Guests had come from Shiraz, Tehran, Shahin Shahr to Isfahan for Farhad's birthday. When they were coming out of the house followed by the police, their clothes were ripped, their faces and bodies were covered in blood. They were beaten up badly."

Reports state that the next morning all those arrested were taken to court, and later to jail. The court is not permitting the families of those arrested to visit their children, and is not accepting bail for their temporary release. Several women were released the next day but the police are continuing to detain the men who are believed to be gay, said the report.

According to new information on the group's web site, the 80 young men arrested are under "severe torture and pressure by Iranian authorities but have not been officially charged" and are held for participating in a party where alcohol beverages were found, music was playing and young people were dancing."

The organisation also reported that it had received news that the arrestees were being tortured in jail and that their lives were in danger.

The statement reads (sic): "Obviously this crackdown is yet another systematic violation of human rights, along with brutal suppression of women's and labor's movements in Iran and must be strongly protested by all human rights organizations as yet another violation of people's private rights and liberties. This means that for now, what is urgently needed is to strongly object to this gross violation of human rights and the invasion of young people's lives and dignity.

"Since these young men are still waiting to be officially charged, it is imperative that interested organizations, for now, avoid naming these arrests as gay crackdown until further notification. We strongly urge you to be vigilant and alert for the next few days and we are immensely grateful for your concerned follow up until the fate of these individuals is determined. In the next few days we will do everything in our power to relay information to all of you especially if and when these young men are officially charged and sentenced by Iran's judicial authorities."

Based on a conservative interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law, Iran's laws provide for the death penalty if sodomy is proved either by a person who confesses four times to having committed sodomy or by the testimony of four righteous men.

In 2005, two Iranian teenagers were both sentenced to death for what some human rights groups claimed was "consensual gay sex" while Iranian authorities asserted that the two were part of a criminal gang that raped a thirteen-year-old boy.