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Abbas Lesani on Hunger Strike and No News on the Condition of Ardebil Detainees

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Abbas Lesani on Hunger Strike and No News on the Condition of Ardebil Detainees

 

Ardebil civil rights activist Abbas Lesani has contacted his family and has informed them of his hunger strike.

Abbas lesani,Asgar Akbarzadeh,Khalegh Akbarzadeh, Ali Babaei, Babak javanshir, Hassan Karimzadeh, Isa Azizi, Nosratoolah Valizadeh, Rahim Gholami, Hamid Ghovati, Ali Kheirjoo and Mehdi Osouli are the names of several Ardebil activists who were arrested on September 12th.

Lesani is a former political prisoner and has told his family that he will go on dry hunger strike if the Intelligence Ministry does not follow-up on his case.

No Reports on the Condition of Other Detainees

The families of other detainees such as Akbarzadeh, Babaei and Javanshir have not been able to receive any information on their condition and are worried that they may be tortured in the Intelligence Ministry Detention Center.

The Mother of Asgar and Khalegh Akbarzadeh stated that Asgar was arrested on September 11th and is currently held in an undisclosed location. According to her, Khalegh has been transferred to Adebil Prison and is held in limbo. He is suffering from blood problems and is in need of constant medical attention.

Ali Babaei and one of his relatives Babak Javanshir have not contacted their families since their arrest and there is no information as to their condition or whereabouts. Babaei had been arrested  several years ago and was imprisoned for several months.

 

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PEN International Demands Faranak Farid’s Release

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PEN International Demands Faranak Farid’s Release

 

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International is seriously concerned for the welfare of journalist, poet and activist Faranak Farid, who was arrested on 3 September 2011 in Tabriz, north-west Iran, apparently for her peaceful activism and writings on environmental issues and women’s rights. She was reportedly severely beaten during her arrest and also ill-treated during the lengthy interrogation sessions which followed at the Tabriz police detention centre in the initial days of her detention. Requests for medical treatment have been denied and concerns for her welfare are mounting. PEN International demands Faranak Farid’s immediate and unconditional release in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory. It also urges that she is given all necessary medical treatment as a matter of urgency.

According to PEN’s information, Faranak Farid, editor-in-chief of the banned monthly Dilmaj, poet and women’s rights activist, was arrested by plainclothes officers whilst out shopping in the city of Tabriz on 3 September 2011. Security forces later searched her house and seized her computer and personal documents. She was arrested following her participation in a peaceful protest against the environmental policies of the Iranian authorities affecting the Urmiah Lake in north-western Iran, and is also thought to be targeted for her writings and activism in defense of women’s rights. She is believed to be facing charges of ‘insulting the Supreme Leader’, ‘propaganda against the system’, and ‘acting against national security.’

Faranak Farid (pen-name Ipek), aged 50, is a leading writer, editor and women’s rights activist. Her publications include the poetry collection Yuxuda Ayilmaq, published in 2009, and Jiziq, currently under publication. She is a founding member of the One Million Signature Campaign (see below for details) and has participated in numerous conferences and seminars both inside and outside Iran.

She is now being held in the women’s section of Tabriz Central Prison, where she is feared to be at risk of ill-treatment. Her sister was allowed to visit her there for 45 minutes on 12 September 2011 but an independent lawyer appointed to represent her has not yet had access to her.

Amnesty International gives the following background information:

Faranak Farid is member of One Million Signatures Campaign, also known as the Campaign for Equality. She is also a member of the Azerbaijani minority in Iran, a poet, a translator and editor of the women’s section of the banned monthly Dilmaj. In 2008 she was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence for questioning regarding a conference on women in Turkey she was due to attend…

The One Million Signatures Campaign, launched in 2006, is a grassroots initiative composed of a network of people committed to ending discrimination against women in Iranian law. The Campaign gives basic legal training to volunteers, who travel around the country promoting the Campaign. They talk with women in their homes, as well as in public places, telling them about their rights and the need for legal reform. The volunteers are also aiming to collect one million signatures of Iranian nationals for a petition demanding an end to legal discrimination against women in Iran. Dozens of the Campaign’s activists have been arrested or harassed for their activities for the Campaign, some while collecting signatures for the petition. Several are currently detained or serving prison terms for their activities on behalf of the Campaign.

Iranian Azerbaijanis speak a Turkic language and are mainly Shi’a Muslims. As the largest minority in Iran, they make up 25-30 per cent of the population; they live mainly in the north and north-west of the country and in Tehran. Although generally well integrated into Iranian society, in recent years they have increasingly called for greater cultural and linguistic rights, including the right to education in Azerbaijani Turkic.

Lake Oroumieh (also spelt Urmia, Urumieh, Oroumiye) is a salt lake in north-western Iran. The lake is situated between the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan. It is the largest lake in the Middle East and the third largest salt water lake on Earth. More than 40 dams have been built over 13 rivers that feed the lake and the recent drought, which started in 1999, has significantly decreased the annual amount of water the lake receives. This in turn has increased the salinity of the water prompting fears of an ecological disaster in the region.

At the beginning of April 2011 demonstrations took place in Tabriz, Oroumieh and reportedly other cities where Iranian Azerbaijanis live, calling on the Iranian authorities to remove dams on rivers feeding Lake Oroumieh due to the risk that the lake could dry up. Similar to protests in previous years, the protesters brought glasses of water and poured them into the rivers feeding the lake or the lake itself (see also: Iran: Azerbaijanis arrested in lake protest, UA 102/11, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/038/2011/en). Other largely peaceful rallies took place between 22 August and 8 September 2011; in response, the authorities carried out scores of arrests and the security forces are alleged to have used excessive force against protesters; unconfirmed reports suggest that several demonstrators may have been killed.

 

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s UN speech prompts diplomatic walkouts

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s UN speech prompts diplomatic walkouts

 

Fury as Iranian president refers to ‘mysterious September 11 incident’ and accuses Nato of sanctioning drug trafficking

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has launched a stinging attack at the United Nations on the US and other major powers as militarist, imperialist and unfit to dominate global governance.

Ahmadinejad’s verbal assault on the west and Israel promoted walkouts by diplomatic delegations. US diplomats were the first to leave, when Ahmadinejad referred to the “mysterious September 11 incident” as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and Iraq.

Later, he criticised the US for killing Osama bin Laden and burying his body at sea, saying the al-Qaida leader should have been brought to trial.

Other delegations, including those from the UK and France, walked out later when the Iranian leader said that if European countries were still paying a “fine or ransom to the Zionists” because of the Holocaust, they should also pay reparations for slavery.

In other parts of his speech he spoke of Zionists being responsible for “mass murder and terror against the Palestinians”, and said the US and west “view Zionism as a sacred notion and ideology”. The Israeli delegation had decided not to attend.

Ahmadinejad, apparently in an attempt to strengthen his political position in Iran, dedicated much of what is likely to be judged as one of his most controversial speeches to asking rhetorical questions about who was responsible for slavery, colonialism and wars over the generations.

He also asked which countries’ economies relied on military spending; who provoked Saddam Hussein to attack Iran; and “who used the atomic bomb against defenceless people?”

Ahmadinejad accused Nato of occupying Afghanistan and of sanctioning drug trafficking, claiming that narcotics production has risen since the US-led invasion a decade ago.

Later, he accused the US and its allies of targeting Iran, which is under sanction over its nuclear programme, because it has challenged orthodoxy. “By using their imperialistic media network which is under the influence of colonialism, they threaten anyone who questions the Holocaust and the September 11 event with sanctions and military actions,” he said.

The Iranian leader said this made the US and its allies unfit to dominate the international system, and called for change to the structure of the UN security council.

But he made no direct reference to the issue that has dominated diplomatic wrangling in New York this week – the Palestinian request for statehood to the security council.

The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is expected to lay out his case for going to the security council in a speech to the UN on Friday, while insisting it is not meant as an alternative to negotiations. Abbas is also expected to say that the move is not a threat to Israel.

That is not how the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, sees it. He may use his speech, later in the day on Friday, to repeat his assertion that the security council move is destabilising, could result in false expectations and violence, and undermines the negotiating process.

The tone of the two leaders’ speeches will be set in part by Barack Obama’s address on Wednesday, which was strongly praised by Israel but has been met with widespread criticism among UN delegations, many of whom regard it as a piece of electioneering as the US president seeks to defuse Republican criticism that he has not backed Israel strongly enough.

Critics said the tone of the American president’s remarks, and his failure to speak directly about occupation or mention the continued construction of Jewish settlements, added weight to a call by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, for an end to US domination of mediation in the conflict.

Abbas is expected to submit the request to the security council after his speech, but the Palestinians have backed away from pressing for an immediate vote, under intense pressure – particularly from Europe – to avoid forcing the US to carry out a threat to veto the move and to give a breathing space to try and relaunch peace negotiations.

The Palestinians also have reason to pause, because it is not certain that they have enough votes to win in the security council whether or not the US vetoes the request. Abbas needs the support of nine of the 15 members, but not all have publicly declared their position.

Some of those thought to be sympathetic to the Palestinian position – notably Bosnia and Gabon – are under intense pressure from the US to abstain.

However, while Netanyahu received strong backing from the White House, the Israeli prime minister was warned by his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, that he is facing his last chance to make peace, and he should not be wasting political capital opposing the Palestinian request to the security council.

“As tensions grow, I cannot but feel that we in the region are on the verge of missing an opportunity – one that we cannot afford to miss,” Olmert wrote in an article for the New York Times.

“The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has declared publicly that he believes in the two-state solution, but he is expending all of his political effort to block Mr Abbas’s bid for statehood by rallying domestic support and appealing to other countries. This is not the wisest step Mr Netanyahu can take.”

Olmert said the Arab spring is changing the political dynamic in theMiddle East, and that it is important for Israel to cement existing peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, as well as reaching a deal with the Palestinians.

“We Israelis simply do not have the luxury of spending more time postponing a solution. A further delay will only help extremists on both sides who seek to sabotage any prospect of a peaceful, negotiated two-state solution,” Olmert said.

 

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REGIME CONTINUES TO WAGE ITS WAR AGAINST FOREIGN MEDIA

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REGIME CONTINUES TO WAGE ITS WAR AGAINST FOREIGN MEDIA

 

Reporters Without Borders condemns the Iranian government’s targeting of the BBC’s Farsi-language TV station, BBC Persian. Its satellite signal was jammed on 16 September when it broadcast a documentary about the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The next day, pro-government media announced the arrest of several of the station’s “collaborators” in Iran.

Culture and Islamic guidance minister Seyed Mohammad Hosseini confirmed the arrests to the government news agency ISNA yesterday. “They are accused of collaborating with the BBC’s Persian TV station, but I am awaiting more details from the intelligence minister,” he said. The intelligence ministry also confirmed the arrests today.

In a statement yesterday BBC Persian noted that six Iranian filmmakers had been arrested during the weekend for allegedly working illegally for the station but it insisted that none of them was on its staff.

“We deplore this latest attack on human rights,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The Iranian government uses all possible means to ban foreign media reporters and block foreign radio and TV broadcasts in Farsi. Satellite TV signals are often jammed. The BBC has on several occasions formally protested about interference from signals broadcast from Iran.

“Many foreign reporters, including those working for Agence France-Presse, the BBC and El País, were unable to extend their visas and had to leave the country. With at least 29 journalists in prison, Iran is one of the world’s leading predators of free expression.”

The documentary broadcast by BBC Persian on 16 September, which included interviews with leading figures now in exile, was about Ayatollah Khamenei and his close associates, his rise to power, his role in the crackdown on reformists and the news media, and the protests that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disputed reelection in June 2009.

As in many totalitarian countries, expressing opinions about the regime’s top leader is banned in Iran. There was no mention of the BBC documentary in the AFP dispatch from Tehran about the arrests of the filmmakers.

The Iranian media have published only the initials of the detained “collaborators.” For the time being, Reporters Without Borders is not in a position to confirm the identity of those detained or even how many have many have been arrested. According to our information, the number of people arrested is greater than what the authorities have been saying.

While the constitution does not provide for any radio or TV station to operate in Iran outside of the state’s control, no law says journalists cannot work for foreign media or their correspondents. Nonetheless, former culture and Islamic guidance minister Mohammad Hossein Safar-Harandi not only banned the new BBC Persian in December 2008 but also banned Iranian journalists from working for any foreign media.

The intelligence ministry announced on 4 January 2010 that, “Several agents from foreign countries have been arrested with their cameras and video cameras.” The ministry also issued a list of 60 NGOs and media regarded as having incited the population to take part in riots. The list included the BBC, BBC Persian and Voice of America.

A BBC documentary about the dissident Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri was jammed on 20 December 2009 shortly it began being broadcast. It included an exclusive interview that he gave the BBC shortly before his death. It was the first time in more than 20 years that he had appeared on TV.

Arrested on 28 December 2009 for interviewing Montazeri, journalist and human rights activistEmadoldin Baghi was released in June of this year pending trial.

Mazyar Khosravi, the editor of the Hammihannews (http://hammihannews.com/news/9857) news website, was arrested in Tehran on 2 May 2010 on a charge of publishing false information for allegedly posting reports and eye-witness accounts about an attack on the university campus by Basij militiamen on 14 June 2009, two days after President Ahmadinejad’s reelection. Many students were serious injured in the raid and, according to some sources, five were killed. The BBC broadcast video footage of the attack. Released after a month, Khosravi is still awaiting trial.

Reporters Without Borders also condemns the regime’s crackdown on actors and filmmakers. Several filmmakers have been arrested and convicted in the past two years. Some, such as award-winning film director Jafar Panahi, who was given a six-month jail sentence last December, are well known. But less known figures are also being subjected to pressure in Tehran’s Evin prison or have been released but remain under constant surveillance and threat.

 

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Female Dervish Arrested To Pressure Her Son

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Female Dervish Arrested To Pressure Her Son

 

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Farhad Nouri spoke about the 11 September arrest of his mother, Farzaneh Nouri, a Gonabadi Dervish, by Shiraz Information Office forces. Farhad Nouri also spoke about recent government persecution of other members of the Gonabadi Dervish sect, a Shiite Sufi order.

“Security forces came to our home on the evening of 11 September without presenting a warrant and after searching the house and confiscating spiritual books, photographs of Gonabadi Dervish leaders, and my computer, arrested my mother,” said Farhad Nouri, adding that his mother has not contacted the house since her arrest. “Unfortunately, the lawyers’ inquiries have not been fruitful so far and they did not allow me to visit my mother … we learned after pursuing the matter that she has most likely been transferred to the Shiraz Intelligence Office, known as Number 100,” Nouri told the Campaign.

“My mother was arrested in 2005 in Qom, along with about 1,500 other Dervishes, during the demolition of the Qom mosque,” he said about his mother’s prior arrest. “If you follow the news on the Majzooban-e-Noor website, which is the news website for the Gonabadi Dervishes, you will note that not a week goes by without some type of pressure put on Gonabadi Dervishes by security forces through arrests, summonses, etc. We can point out at least 300 instances of this since 2005, for example the pressure following the demolition of the Qom mosque, the Boroujerd mosque, preventing burials at the Bidokht Soltani cemetery, arrests and trials and revocation of licenses of lawyers who represent the Gonabadi Dervishes, group trials of Dervishes, telephone summonses by security forces, etc., during each episode of which several Gonabadi Dervishes have been thrown in jail,” he told the Campaign.

“I am really concerned now about her health conditions, the pressure on her, and her being tortured by security forces. This is not only my concern. Families of all Dervishes whose innocent loved ones were arrested are concerned. I was in touch with the families of Amir Eslami, Farshid Yadollahi, Saleh Moradi, and Hamid Moradi and their families were really concerned about their physical conditions,” said Farhad Nouri.

Farhad Nouri is one of the managers of Majzooban-e-Noor website. “The main reason for the arrest of these eleven individuals (Hamid Moradi Sarvestani, Alireza Roshan, Ali Karami, Mehdi Asnaloo, Ali Astaraki, Mostafa Abdi, Mehran Rahbari, Nosrat Tabarsi, and Ali Moazzami) is mostly for preventing reliable dissemination of news about the Gonabadi Dervishes and things that happened last week in Kavar town, including the arrests of Gonabadi Dervishes and the murder of one of them.”

“Farshid Yadollahi was arrested as a continuation of efforts to detain lawyers representing Gonabadi Dervishes. Since last week, three lawyers have been arrested. Regarding my mother, Farzaneh Nouri’s arrest, I should say that the main reason for the arrests was to shut down the Majzooban-e-Noor, the Gonabadi Dervishes official website. I am one of the managers of this website. When the gentlemen were unable to contact me, they arrested my mother to put pressure on the family and on me, hoping to be able to arrest me, too. I really don’t know what to say in response to such actions. Just like many other Iranian mothers and wives, my mother is a Gonabadi Dervish and is not involved in any particular partisan or political activities. She is not even a manager or an employee of the website,” Farhad Nouri added.

“According to the latest news I received about the Dervishes arrested in Kavar, several of them were released to court-approved custodians, and several of them have received bail orders. Some of the Dervishes were not willing to post bail. One of the three injured Dervishes, Ebrahim Fazli, who was shot and was hospitalized for treatment was transferred to an unknown location by security forces on Saturday, and Mohammad Ali Sa’adi and Asghar Karimi remain in hospital in Shiraz under security watch. According to the latest news about the 11 managers and employees of the Majzooban-e-Noor website, their cases are under review at Branch 5 of Evin Prison Courts, but we still have no information about how they are detained and their physical conditions. Unfortunately, authorities have not yet allowed the detainees to visit with their lawyers and families have been unable to find answers from judicial authorities about these 11 individuals’ charges,” said Farhad Nouri.

“We hope to be able to find out about the conditions and health of all Dervishes who were arrested, because we really don’t know what conditions they have and what kinds of pressure they are experiencing, and we are worried about their health, especially Amir Eslami and Mr. Moradi who suffer from severe heart conditions,” Nouri concluded.

 

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ISNA Reporter Hadi Ahmadi Detained

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ISNA Reporter Hadi Ahmadi Detained

 

Hadi Ahmadi, ISNA Economics reporter, was detained in Karaj last week. He was also summoned a day before his arrest for interrogations.

He has called his family but the reason fro his arrest is unclear. He has been working for ISNA since 2006.

 

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Fatemeh Karroubi denounces opposition leader’s arrest conditions

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Fatemeh Karroubi denounces opposition leader’s arrest conditions

 

Fatemeh Karroubi is slamming the incarceration of her husband, opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, in a letter to the Islamic Republic judiciary.

The Saham News website has published the critical letter addressed to the head of Iran’s judiciary and written by Fatemeh Karroubi, the wife of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, who has been under “house arrest” since last February. Together with the other opposition leader, MirHosein Mousavi, Karroubi rallied protesters to demonstrate in support of the recent Arab uprisings in the region.

In retaliation, Iranian security forces put Mehdi Karroubi and Fatemeh Karroubi under house arrest in their apartment complex. They were cut off from the outside world and denied any visitors, and security forces were deployed in their apartment.

Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, were also put under house arrest in their home.

A few weeks ago, Mehdi Karroubi was transferred to a small apartment, where there was no room to accommodate his wife.

Fatemeh Karroubi writes that the former regime treated political prisoners more humanely than the Islamic Republic does. She writes that the former regime never raided people’s private homes without a warrant and, when people were put under house arrest, security forces were not deployed inside the home.

Fatemeh Karroubi goes on to write that her husband is being held under conditions that are even worse than those faced by a prisoner in solitary confinement. She adds that Karroubi is denied basic prisoner rights, with no access to books, newspapers, regular visits or even fresh air.

Fatemeh Karroubi writes that because their house arrest had forced the other residents of the apartment complex out of their homes, the Karroubis had asked the authorities to move them to another location. Fatemeh Karroubi writes that her husband had challenged the takeover of the complex and told authorities that he was ready to be moved to any other location, even the notorious Evin Prison.

She adds that her family prepared a house in the northern part of Tehran, but the authorities claimed that the location did not meet with their approval.

The authorities have said that the family must rent another location if it wishes to move Mehdi Karroubi to a larger place.

Fatemeh Karroubi notes that the authorities are burdening the family with all the costs of the prison and the guards, just so they can “tell the world that Karroubi is under arrest in his own home.”

The wife of the opposition leader emphasizes that despite all pressures, her husband stands firm in his political stance with the “very fervour that he began his political activities with in 1961.”

 

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“One of His Charges is ‘Receiving an Illegal Prize,’” Says Prominent Lawyer’s Wife

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“One of His Charges is ‘Receiving an Illegal Prize,’” Says Prominent Lawyer’s Wife

 

Massoumeh Dehghan, wife of lawyer and co-founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center Abdolfattah Soltani, expressed concern about her husband’s conditions and her lack of contact with him for the past several days. “Mr. Soltani himself told me when he called that his charges are ‘propagating against the regime,’ ‘establishing the Defenders of Human Rights Center,’ ‘assembly and collusion against national security,’ and ‘accepting an unlawful prize.’ By ‘unlawful prize,’ they mean the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, which Mr. Soltani received in 2009,” Dehghan told theInternational Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Dehghan told the Campaign that she was able to retrieve only three of the many items taken from her home during Soltani’s arrest, but the other items remain in the custody of Intelligence Ministry forces.

“We are concerned, as Mr. Soltani has not called home in five days. He suffers from digestive track illness and this worries us. In his last contact, my husband said that he is inside Ward 209 of Evin Prison along with 10 or 12 other prisoners. He contacted us three times the first week and now we are shocked that he has not contacted us even once in five days. His lawyer went to prison and asked around, but the authorities told him that he has no problems and is well. But we are worried,” said Dehghan. “The prison authorities told him that his objection to his detention has been forwarded to the court and now we have to wait for the court’s opinion, to see whether this objection is overruled or he will be released on bail,” she added.

Abdolfattah Soltani has represented many political and human rights activists and their families such as Akbar Ganji, Zahra Kazemi, Zahra Baniyaghoub, Haleh Esfandiari, several Nationalist-Religious figures and Iranian union activists. He has been arrested several times. He was arrested in 2005 and was acquitted of all charges seven months later. He was arrested again in 2009 after the presidential election, and served two months in prison.

Massoumeh Dehghan, Abdolfattah Soltani’s wife, is a retired teacher who has never engaged in any political activities. She was arrested on 5 July after appearing before Evin Prison Court following a summons she had received three days earlier. She spent five days in a solitary cell and was later released on bail of $30,000. Her charge was accepting the “illegal” Nuremberg International Human Rights Prize. In 2009, when Soltani was awarded the Nuremberg International Human Rights Prize, Dehghan received the award on Soltani’s behalf because he was banned from foreign travel. Dehghan received a summons stating her charge following her arrest  to appear before Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court on 8 November.

 

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“Stop Executions,” Four UN Human Rights Experts Tell Iran

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“Stop Executions,” Four UN Human Rights Experts Tell Iran

 

On 22 September 2011 four United Nations Special Rapporteurs for executions, torture, human rights in Iran, and independence of the judiciary, issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s recent execution of a juvenile and called for the country to immediately institute a moratorium on the death penalty. (Full Statement Below)

Yesterday, 21 September, Iranian authorities hanged 17-year-old offender Alireza Molla-Soltani in public. Under the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child it is illegal to execute someone for crimes committed under the age of eighteen. Iran is party to both treaties. Nonetheless Iran remains one of a handful of countries still putting juveniles to death. This year Iran executed at least 3 juveniles, including Soltani.

The International Campaign for Iran has repeatedly expressed concern about Iran’s skyrocketing executions, the vast majority of which do not meet international standards. Iran puts to death more people per-capita than any other country in the world and is only second to China in total numbers of executions. In the first three weeks of September alone Iran has executed 51 people.

 

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Son of jailed political activist fatally run over by police car

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Son of jailed political activist fatally run over by police car

 

Local sources in Khalaf Abad in east Ahwaz announced that Hamed Asakeri, son of Rahman Asakereh who is an Arab political activist was run over by police car on Tuesday September 13 and died instantly.

This source said in phone call that in this suspicious accident, 14 year old Hamed Asakereh was run over by a police car near his home.

Rahman Asakereh who is a well-known human rights and social activist in Ahwaz was arrested along with seven other political and cultural activists last March and has been taken to an unknown location. (Ahwaz News website – Sep. 16, 2011)

 

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