Spouse of Ukrainian Downed Plane Victim: I Was Summoned and Threatened by Zanjan Intelligence
The spouse of one of the victims killed in the plane crash downed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported being summoned and threatened by the Zanjan Intelligence Office on charges of “insulting Khamenei’s representatives,” stating he was forced to leave Iran.
Javad Soleimani, husband of Elnaz Nabiyi, one of the victims of the Ukrainian plane that was shot down by IRGC missiles, wrote in an Instagram post that “the morning after the condolence ceremony,” the Zanjan Intelligence Office summoned him for “insulting Khamenei’s representatives and Instagram posts.”
Elnaz Nabiyi’s husband wrote that he had previously criticized “the manner of conducting mandatory ceremonies by the Martyrs Foundation, IRGC, and government institutions” and added: “Unfortunately at the condolence ceremony, I saw that the IRGC commander and Khamenei’s representative in the IRGC stood next to us as chief mourners. I told them I am not so shameless as to let you stand as chief mourners.”
Mr. Soleimani wrote that on the day of mourning he received a message stating “Shut your mouth and this is the first and last warning.”
Continuing his post and referring to going to Tehran after being summoned to the Zanjan Intelligence Office, he wrote that contacts had also been made with his father’s residence in Tehran. He had gone to a place other than his acquaintances’ residences in Tehran and since he was not and is not one to remain silent, he was forced to quickly leave the country to convey the voice of the victims’ oppression to others.
On the morning of Wednesday, the 18th of Dey, a Boeing 737 passenger aircraft of Ukraine International Airlines with 176 passengers was shot down by the IRGC’s air defense system shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport near Tehran. After several days of Iranian officials insisting that the plane crash occurred due to a technical defect, the IRGC ultimately announced that it had mistakenly targeted the aircraft.
However, published images from the funeral ceremonies of the victims show that authorities, by erecting barriers, barely allowed families to approach the burial site of their loved ones and transformed the ceremony into a state funeral.
Also, one of the fathers of the Ukrainian plane victims criticized in a mosque that the perpetrators of this missile strike on the passenger aircraft were not prosecuted.
The Islamic Republic government has taken security measures against those protesting the IRGC’s shooting down of the passenger aircraft.
A judicial official of the Islamic Republic confirmed the arrest of people in recent protests over the downing of the Ukrainian plane by the IRGC and the deaths of 176 people, stating the number of those detained was “approximately 30 people.”
Source: Voice of America
