No Word of Pooya Bakhtiari’s Father’s Status; Family Activist Detained for Hours

After at least 50 days of detention and no information about the status of Pooya Bakhtiari’s father—a young man killed by bullets fired by Islamic Republic officials during November protests—other family members were also briefly detained in recent days following a gathering in front of the Interior Ministry building.

Mehrdad Bakhtiari, brother of Manouchehr Bakhtiari (Pooya’s father), told Voice of America that eight family members gathered in front of the Interior Ministry building on Tuesday, August 25, due to lack of information about Manouchehr Bakhtiari’s whereabouts. Manouchehr has been detained since July 14. The family members held photographs of Mr. Bakhtiari and placards reading “Seeking justice is not a crime, free Manouchehr Bakhtiari.”

According to Mr. Bakhtiari, after people joined the family’s gathering in protest of Manouchehr Bakhtiari’s unlawful detention and following the family’s protests, after one security officer filmed the gathering, at least 20 plainclothes officers attacked the Bakhtiari family members with curses, beatings, and strikes. They arrested all of them and transferred them to Abbas Abad police detention center in Tehran.

Mehrdad Bakhtiari told Voice of America that during this detention, security officials showed no mercy even to Mr. Bakhtiari’s 80-year-old mother and subjected her to beatings. According to Mr. Bakhtiari, after four hours of detention and interrogation of family members and accusing them of “disturbing public opinion,” all family members were released without bail or commitment.

This is not the first time some members of Pooya Bakhtiari’s family have been detained by security forces since the November protests deaths. Previously, some family members were detained by security forces ahead of the fortieth-day commemoration of those killed in the November 2019 protests.

Pooya Bakhtiari was among those killed during Iran’s November 2019 protests. On the second day of protests against a fuel price increase, he joined other family members in a march when he was shot and died before reaching the hospital. During Pooya’s fortieth-day commemoration, the Bakhtiari family announced they would hold a gathering at his grave; however, the Iranian regime confronted family members and imprisoned some of them.

Pooya Bakhtiari’s uncle, regarding the latest status of Manouchehr Bakhtiari, told Voice of America: “No one knows what charges Mr. Bakhtiari was detained on or exactly which agency is holding him. We are not allowed visits, and we are not allowed phone calls. Currently, the family has no information about his condition.”

Mehrdad Bakhtiari, referring to the unlawful nature of his brother’s detention, told Voice of America: “According to the Manouchehr Bakhtiari family, he was not detained in the legal sense and can be said to have been abducted.”

Mr. Bakhtiari says: “We have been wronged in this country, our cries for justice reach nowhere and no court listens to us. After Pooya’s death and his father’s pursuit of justice for his unjustly shed blood, they confiscated our family home without presenting any court order or verdict, and shortly before this they sealed our workplace. While we are only seeking a fair trial to bring the perpetrators and organizers of the November massacre to justice for their actions, and certainly my brother’s voice from inside prison is the same.”

Voice of America previously reported that Manouchehr Bakhtiari was detained by security forces on Monday, July 14, at Kish Island Airport as he was trying to return to Tehran, and was transferred to an unknown location.