Mother of Iran’s Taichi Champion: Since December 9, 2019, We Have Been Buried Alive Every Day
“They did not return my child to me, they only showed me a coffin and said they would deliver it to Behesht Zahra. When they brought it for burial, it was sealed and they did not allow us to open it and see. I could never properly see my own child for the last time and believe that I was truly burying my own child in that soil. Throughout it all they were surrounding us, standing everywhere and did not allow us.”
“A sealed coffin” is the last image Arezu Fakoor, mother of Arshia Arbab Bahrami, Iran’s national champion and one of the 176 passengers on Flight 752 that was shot down by Revolutionary Guard missiles, has of her 19-year-old son.
Ms. Fakoor told Radio Farda in an interview about the horrifying details of what happened on the night of December 9, 2019, at Imam Airport, and that her family has filed complaints against the Revolutionary Guards, perpetrators and commanders, but so far no one from the Revolutionary Guards has been interrogated.
“Despite all the pain we had, they would come to our home and wanted to call him a martyr. My child had gone to study, had gone to study medicine. He had not gone to war or the front. They killed my child. My child is a victim, not a martyr, and whoever killed my child is a murderer. The greatest torment is that still no one has been tried, still no one has come to court to say this person could be responsible for this case. We did not even get an apology or condolences from the government, and when 176 innocent people were torn apart in this plane, the television was still broadcasting the sounds of war drums celebrating the attack on Iraq and they did not even allow a condolence message on television.”
The Civil Aviation Organization on March 19 in a 285-page report identified the “air defense system operator” as responsible, who according to the report, due to “error in setting the geographic direction,” identified this passenger aircraft as “a hostile target” and caused two missiles to be fired at it.
In this report, the Revolutionary Guards were not directly named and only the “air defense system operator” was identified as responsible, but the name or details related to this “operator” did not appear in the report.
Arezu Fakoor, mother of Arshia Arbab Bahrami, calls this report “worthless” and says: “After 15 months, they have given us a completely worthless report in which even one question has not been answered and all the questions that had been raised remain unanswered. This entire report is wrong from start to finish and they are returning the previous lies to us. Of course we did not expect anything else, because from the very first day we were certain this crime was committed intentionally and deliberately and our children, our loved ones, became human shields. We knew they were murdered. What murderer condemns himself?”
Ms. Fakoor at the same time says that she had hoped that in these 15 months “perhaps the conscience of someone who gave the order, someone who executed it, and someone who made such a decision would awaken and come after 15 months to reduce this torment. All of this group, the bread they bring home to their families is stained with the blood of our children, and it will not go unanswered, and we are certain that one day we will get an answer, and until justice is served, we will not forgive, we will not be silent, and we will not forget. Even if it costs us our lives. We have nothing more to lose. Life has no value for us anymore. Neither Eid is Eid for us nor birthdays and all the important days of the year have changed for us and there is no other important and valuable day.”
“My husband filed a complaint against the commanders and perpetrators in those first days. The other members of the association who are in Iran have all gone many times, but received no answer. It is strange to us that none of the people in the Revolutionary Guards are even questioned. Once they did not want these people to be asked why and for what reason this happened, and no one was interrogated, neither from the Revolutionary Guards nor from the people at the airport.”
Arshia Arbab Bahrami was Iran’s national champion in light-weight martial arts taichi who had won several medals in international and world competitions. His mother responds to the government’s announcement of paying compensation to families of the victims as follows:
“The greatest insult that could be done to the families is this. Because in fact they are saying we shot them, we killed everyone, and now you come and make a deal with us and we will pay the money. My child was a national champion. He was a world champion and at age 17 do you know how many gold medals and how many silver medals he had? On this very trip to Iran, he won two gold medals in taichi. I am willing to give ten times that amount of money, will they return my child to me? Can I do such a thing? Who is willing to trade their child for money?”
Ms. Fakoor, who along with her husband and two other children was at Imam Airport until the moment the Ukrainian plane took off, provides details that have rarely been mentioned until now:
“We went to the CIP section of the airport to be with Arshia until the last moment and Arshia had his head on my leg the whole time. I looked at the clock for a moment and saw it was a bit later than the time when they should have come and called us and given us the boarding pass. I looked for a moment and saw a lady was watching the television and it shocked her. I felt people were showing some reaction. I stood up and saw the television was showing that they had attacked the US base in Iraq and it was showing celebration and rejoicing about this attack.”
“The world collapsed on me. A terrible fear seized me that if such an event had happened, they might retaliate on the other side and God forbid something might happen to the plane. I felt very bad. At that very moment I mentioned that such an event had happened, what should we do now? Arshia jokingly turned back and said now that I’m flying, two missiles will pass above and below the plane. I said, mother, even his joke is not nice, don’t say it, this is not good at all. We thought to ourselves that if there was going to be a war, it would be better if our child left soon and we would be at ease. We never thought that missiles would be fired at him above our own country.”
Flight 752 took off that night with a delay, but according to Arshia’s mother, the airport display board was not working: “As I was holding him close, I did not want to let him go; it was a state of anxiety and fear, I don’t know what it was but it was a very bad feeling. It was not like the last time when I was saying goodbye to him. I was at the airport until six in the morning. The flight display board did not change at all. It did not say there was a delay or anything. I kept going and asking why the flight was not leaving, why there was no change on the board? They said this board might be different from the main board, sometimes it has problems. I asked again, they said yes, it took off. We felt reassured. My husband was checking the flight schedule on his phone, he said the flight took off but the internet is down and it’s not showing.”
“It was 7 in the morning when my cousin called. I was very surprised but since she also has a son the same age as my son, I thought she heard the news of the attack and was worried about Arshia’s flight. I picked up the phone and said I know you are worried about Arshia leaving, thank God Arshia took off and left this dangerous situation. Suddenly she said, Arezu, which flight did he take? His flight number was not 752, was it? I only remember that when I heard this I could no longer control myself. Why would she need to know my child’s flight number? I said, how do you know the flight number? She said nothing, they said it has a technical defect.”
“I didn’t understand what happened. I have no idea, I just know I threw down the phone and I was no longer myself, I don’t remember anything at all. Everything is like pieces of a film, scene by scene, I remember, because I was in a psychological state. I only remember screaming, take me, let me find my child. I was begging, take me, wherever it is take me, let me find my child.”
Islamic Republic officials in the first three days after shooting down the plane, by concealing the truth, mentioned the cause as an aviation accident, but after international pressure, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force announced that targeting this plane was “unintentional” and the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense had mistaken it for a cruise missile.
Arshia Arbab Bahrami’s mother says: “They told me the flight had a technical defect and that’s why such a thing happened. They would not let me hear any news. That is, for several days they kept me in the dark and would not let me understand what had happened. Later I found out they had fired a missile at the plane. This was disaster upon disaster and every day I say I wish this plane had a technical defect, at least we would say it was an accident that happened. Eventually someone has an accident, someone gets sick; but accepting this matter is very difficult.”
“More than a year has passed but every day we are being buried alive. That is, since December 9, we no longer have a life; we are effectively moving corpses. We are no longer alive. Our life ended there. We can no longer have a good day and with every news that comes, our condition worsens and we fall apart again.”
“I say the first missile was fired, why was the second missile fired? When they said 19 seconds, believe me I counted 19 seconds around the clock for 24 hours. 19 seconds was not a short time. It was not a short time for their fear. For their suffering. Why was the plane delayed? Why was the airport atmosphere so strange and unusual? We did not notice it at that time, but now that we think about it, the airport atmosphere was not normal. Nothing was written on the board and the delay was excessive, and none of these things were normal. It is truly unbearable. There is an anger that does not go out in any way and from that date we have heard different news every day and with every news December 9 has repeated for us and with every news we have been buried alive again.”
Arshia’s burned passport is the only thing that was given to his family: “I begged them to give me the phone and laptop; all my child’s memories are in these and my child’s memories are important to me. He had all this money with him, he had gold with him, they [gave] nothing, but give us the items that were memories for us. They did not and this is torment for me.”
“All we want is for justice to be served. Our questions must be answered. Every day they are playing with our minds and souls; every day with every word, every sentence and every example they give. The worst thing that could have happened to us has happened and there is nothing greater than this tragedy and nothing greater than this pain. At least from now on let us be consumed by our pain and not torment us this much. Answer our questions so at least we can get out of this ambiguity. Living in ambiguity is very difficult. To lose your loved one and not know what happened; this is very difficult. Do not add salt to our wounds at least. We are only alive to see the day of justice, we are alive only to get an answer to our questions.”
Source: Radio Farda
