5 Iranian safety officers pounced on a younger protester after he fell to the bottom, beating him severely. As a crowd approached to intervene, one officer held a gun to the person’s head, threatening to shoot him if anybody got here nearer.
The a number of dozen demonstrators backed away, however the officers, bolstered with further manpower, fired three warning photographs into the air and charged towards the gang.
Two extra photographs rang out. When the smoke cleared on Zerhi Road, 20-year-old Omid Moayidi was useless.
Eyewitnesses to what occurred on the night of November 13 throughout protests within the southwestern metropolis of Shiraz stated the college pupil was first shot within the again as he and different protesters fled. After he fell from the primary bullet, he was then shot at shut vary within the head.
“They shot him. They shot him within the brow,” one in all two witnesses to the capturing informed RFE/RL’s Radio Farda on situation of anonymity out of issues for his or her security.
Each of the eyewitnesses stated Moayidi was shot after becoming a member of others to assist the protester who was being crushed. A 3rd stated Moayidi’s physique was taken away shortly after he was shot.
Sources with information of the state of affairs, additionally talking on situation of anonymity, stated the household received the runaround from the authorities as they tried to find out Moayidi’s destiny, and had been solely capable of affirm that he had died three days after he was shot by safety forces.
The authorities, in the meantime, have tried to make use of Moayidi’s dying to their benefit by portraying him as an harmless sufferer, claiming that he wasn’t taking part on the street demonstrations and was hit by a bullet fired by demonstrators as he drove on one other metropolis road.
The authorities’ claims, mixed with strain on the household to comply with the official line that Moayidi was a “martyr” of the nation’s clerical regime, have solely satisfied his kin that they’re trying to cowl up his killing by safety forces.
Sources with information of the state of affairs informed RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that there was little doubt Moayidi had joined protests happening in Shiraz on November 13. The demonstrations within the metropolis that day honored the anniversary of “Bloody November,” a lethal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2019 that rights teams stated left as many as 1,500 protesters useless.
The protests in Shiraz had been additionally a neighborhood continuation of ongoing antiestablishment demonstrations that erupted throughout the nation following the September 16 dying of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish girl who died shortly after she was arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s head-scarf legislation.
Rights teams say not less than 458 protesters have been killed by authorities forces throughout the state’s crackdown on the demonstrations, which have posed one of the crucial critical challenges to Iran’s clerical institution that has dominated for the reason that Islamic Revolution in 1979.
‘You Killed My Youngster’
Sources with information of the state of affairs stated that Moayidi’s brother was with him, however they had been separated when the safety officers attacked. His brother returned house safely and the household instantly got down to decide Moayidi’s whereabouts.
After repeated calls from Moayidi’s mom on the night time of November 13, a person answered Moayidi’s cell phone and informed her that her son had been arrested and she or he ought to contact the knowledge workplace of the native department of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, based on the sources.
Repeated follow-ups led to additional referrals to the native police, Intelligence Ministry department, and different authorities places of work, the sources with information of the state of affairs stated. Lastly, after three days, the household acquired a name directing them to go to the morgue to determine Moayidi’s physique.
When his father arrived, he was proven solely his son’s face, which he stated had a bullet gap within the brow. However Intelligence Ministry officers later informed Moayidi’s father that the official forensic report solely talked about a bullet wound to the again, based on the sources with information of the state of affairs.
The sources informed Radio Farda that representatives of varied companies went to the household house and informed Moayidi’s mother and father that he was shot by protesters whereas driving his automobile, an account that the household didn’t settle for.
In accordance with the sources, on the insistence of Moayidi’s mom, she was allowed to see her son’s physique previous to his burial on November 23. However when she was offered with Moayidi’s physique, it was fully coated aside from the face, along with his brow wrapped in a flag.
Safety officers later informed the household that Moayidi was shot whereas driving by somebody who fired at shut vary, resulting in an accident, in an obvious try to elucidate the pinnacle wound.
That declare prompted the household to file an official grievance with the native department of the Intelligence Ministry during which they demanded to know who killed Moayidi.
As Moayidi’s funeral approached, based on the sources, the household was pressured to permit him to be buried as a martyr in a funeral to be paid for by the state. “They went to Omid’s home…and stated that they had been burying Omid and would have a ceremony for him,” the sources stated.
The intention, the sources imagine, was to make use of Moayidi’s title to spotlight the dying of a member of the Basij paramilitary power who shared Moayidi’s final title and died in Shiraz the identical night time. “They declared Mohammad Moayidi [the Basij member] a martyr and needed to carry up Omid as effectively and say that we now have misplaced two martyrs,” one of many sources informed Radio Farda.
However regardless of threats that his brother and father might face arrest if the household didn’t adjust to the authorities’ needs and abide by the official line that Moayidi had been killed by protesters, the household refused to go alongside. “His mom stated, ‘You killed my baby…do no matter you need [to us for refusing],'” one of many sources near the household stated.
Moayidi was finally buried in a non-public ceremony, in accordance with the household’s needs. However the nameless sources stated that the ceremony was restricted to shut kin. The household was not allowed to announce Moayidi’s funeral, the sources stated, and the 50 individuals who attended had been watched over by a whole bunch of safety personnel.
Since then, the sources with information of the state of affairs informed Radio Farda, the household has been pressured to talk publicly on radio and tv to repeat the official narrative that Moayidi was a sufferer of protester violence. However the household has not given in.
Prosecutors in Fars Province, of which Shiraz is the capital, have continued to assert that Moayidi was killed by “rioters.” They’ve stated that his dying had led to a number of arrests on the scene and {that a} felony investigation continues. State media has reported that Moayidi’s dying occurred on November 14, the day after the protests.
