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, strengthened with further manpower, fired three warning pictures into the air and charged towards the gang.
Two extra pictures rang out. When the smoke cleared on Zerhi Avenue, 20-year-old Omid Moayidi was lifeless.
Eyewitnesses to what occurred on the night of November 13 throughout protests within the southwestern metropolis of Shiraz stated the college scholar 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 taking pictures instructed 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 overwhelmed. A 3rd stated Moayidi’s physique was taken away shortly after he was shot.
Sources with information of the scenario, additionally talking on situation of anonymity, stated the household obtained the runaround from the authorities as they tried to find out Moayidi’s destiny, and had been solely in a position to verify 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 loss of life 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 avenue.
The authorities’ claims, mixed with strain on the household to observe the official line that Moayidi was a “martyr” of the nation’s clerical regime, have solely satisfied his family members that they’re trying to cowl up his killing by safety forces.
Sources with information of the scenario instructed RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that there was little doubt Moayidi had joined protests going down 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 lifeless.
The protests in Shiraz had been additionally a neighborhood continuation of ongoing antiestablishment demonstrations that erupted throughout the nation following the September 16 loss of life of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish lady who died shortly after she was arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s head-scarf legislation.
Rights teams say at the least 458 protesters have been killed by authorities forces in the course of the state’s crackdown on the demonstrations, which have posed some of the severe challenges to Iran’s clerical institution that has dominated because the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
‘You Killed My Youngster’
Sources with information of the scenario 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 instructed 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, in response to the sources.
Repeated follow-ups led to additional referrals to the native police, Intelligence Ministry department, and different authorities workplaces, the sources with information of the scenario stated. Lastly, after three days, the household obtained 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 instructed Moayidi’s father that the official forensic report solely talked about a bullet wound to the again, in response to the sources with information of the scenario.
The sources instructed Radio Farda that representatives of varied companies went to the household house and instructed Moayidi’s mother and father that he was shot by protesters whereas driving his automotive, an account that the household didn’t settle for.
Based on 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 introduced with Moayidi’s physique, it was fully lined apart from the face, together with his brow wrapped in a flag.
Safety officers later instructed the household that Moayidi was shot whereas driving by somebody who fired at shut vary, resulting in an accident, in an obvious try to clarify the pinnacle wound.
That declare prompted the household to file an official criticism with the native department of the Intelligence Ministry by which they demanded to know who killed Moayidi.
As Moayidi’s funeral approached, in response to 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 consider, was to make use of Moayidi’s identify to focus on the loss of life of a member of the Basij paramilitary pressure who shared Moayidi’s final identify and died in Shiraz the identical night time. “They declared Mohammad Moayidi [the Basij member] a martyr and needed to carry up Omid as nicely and say that now we have misplaced two martyrs,” one of many sources instructed 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 youngster…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 family members. 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 lot of safety personnel.
Since then, the sources with information of the scenario instructed 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 loss of life had led to a number of arrests on the scene and {that a} felony investigation continues. State media has reported that Moayidi’s loss of life occurred on November 14, the day after the protests.
