Latest Status of Detainees from Commemorative Ceremony of Navid Behbudi, Victim of November Protests
Families of some individuals detained during the fortieth-day commemoration ceremony of Navid Behbudi, one of the deaths from the November protests, held at Gorab Zarmikheh cemetery in Gilan Province, remain without information about their whereabouts.
According to reports published on social media, at least eleven people named Jalaeh Javalieri, Forough Samiei Nia, Kaveh Mozaffari, Ahmad Zahedi, Hooman Tahriri, Faraz Roshan, Fahimeh Kameli, Amir Islami, Sara Zaherkorddar, Azar Jafari, and Mahrookh Roustaii were detained on Thursday, December 26, during the fortieth-day commemoration ceremony of Navid Behbudi’s death at Gorab Zarmikheh cemetery in Gilan Province and transferred to Rasht detention facility.
Voice of America cannot independently confirm the accuracy of these reports.
According to available reports, currently three of these individuals named Kaveh Mozaffari, Jalaeh Javalieri, and Forough Samiei Nia remain in detention despite their families’ follow-up efforts.
Kaveh Mozaffari, one of the detainees, stated in a contact with his family that they have been charged with one offense and bail of 100 million tomans has been set for each person’s release. However, when the families of these individuals referred to the prosecutor’s office, they were informed that the case is in the hands of the Ministry of Intelligence and the prosecutor’s office will not accept bail until the case is received.
On the other hand, Jalaeh Javalieri and Forough Samiei Nia have had no contact with their families and relatives up to this point, and there is no information about their detention location.
A group of Twitter users reported that some of these detainees were released on Saturday, December 29, two days after their detention.
According to published reports, Navid Behbudi, one of the protesters in recent popular demonstrations in Iran, lost his life on November 17 due to direct fire by security forces to the head area in Qaleh Hassan Khan, Tehran.
Coinciding with the fortieth-day commemoration of those killed in the November protests in Iran, reports and images published on social media indicate a severe security atmosphere in various Iranian cities. Reports also indicate that at Beheshti-ye Sakina cemetery in Karaj, authorities detained some individuals and prevented the fortieth-day commemoration ceremony of Pouya Bakhtiari from being held.
The fortieth-day commemoration of the deaths of protesters in Iran took place while Islamic Republic authorities had not permitted families of the deceased to hold fortieth-day ceremonies, and some of them, such as members of Pouya Bakhtiari’s family who had issued a nationwide call for public participation in his fortieth-day ceremony, were detained, including an 11-year-old child among the detainees.
Following the detention of family members of this young victim, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo strongly condemned the arrest of Pouya Bakhtiari’s parents in a statement and called for their immediate release.
Commemoration ceremonies for victims in Iran took place under conditions where the Islamic Republic continues to refuse to release accurate figures on the deaths and detentions in these protests.
This is while Reuters news agency reported the death toll in Iran’s protests at 1,500 people and, citing three sources close to the Islamic Republic’s leader, wrote that Khamenei had ordered government and security officials to do “whatever is necessary” to stop the protests.
Human rights activists called on permanent members of the UN Security Council to condemn the suppression of the people in Iran by approving a resolution as a “crime against humanity.”
Source: Voice of America
