Seyyed Hamid Taheri's family: We thought they were shooting in the air

Rahim Ejri, the father-in-law of Seyyed Hamid Taheri, who died from a gunshot wound on Saturday, November 15, said in an interview with the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the bullet hit his chest and the hospital handed over his body to security forces.

Mr. Ejri told the campaign that they did not allow his son-in-law to be buried in “Chahardangeh,” the neighborhood where his family lives, and that Mr. Taheri’s family buried him in Dar al-Salam Islam Shahr at the request of security forces.

According to his father-in-law, Seyyed Hamid Taheri, 35, was a carpenter and the father of a 4-month-old child, and his funeral and burial ceremony were held in the presence of security officers.

There is no exact figure for the number of people killed in last week's protests in Iran. The Islamic Republic's authorities refuse to provide official figures for the number of dead and those arrested. Amnesty International has put the death toll at at least 208, and the website Kalameh has declared it "credible" that at least 366 people have been killed in recent protests in Iran.

The Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has stated in a statement that the Iranian authorities' use of violence against protesters in Iran, including the use of firearms and weapons, has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, and that these government actions amount to a clear and unjustifiable violation of international law and must be stopped immediately.

Rahim Ejri, the father-in-law of Seyyed Hamid Taheri, said in an interview with the campaign: “My daughter and son-in-law were unable to have children for 10 years. After a lot of follow-up and medication, they had a child 4 months ago and they were very happy. On Saturday, Hamid went to buy powdered milk for the baby and when he returned home on Farsian Street, he was shot. Of course, we knew it was busy and there was gunfire, but we thought they were shooting in the air and we never thought they would shoot directly until they called us and said that Hamid had been shot and they had taken him to the Chardangeh Day Clinic.”

Mr. Ejri, who had gone to the Chahardange 24-hour clinic to check on his son-in-law’s condition, told the campaign: “His breathing was warm and we were hoping he was still alive, so we took him to Ziaian Hospital, but when we got to the hospital, Hamid had already passed away. They took him from us and told us to go to the Islam Shahr forensic medicine office. They had handed him over to the authorities (security forces). But they did not hand him over to us at the forensic medicine office. His father and brother followed up and finally gave us the body three days later, but they said it should be buried in Dar al-Salam Islam Shahr and there should be no noise. We wanted to bury Hamid in our own Chahardange, which is our neighborhood, but they did not agree, and in order to get the body, we had to agree to bury it where they said we should.”

According to Mr. Ejri, they did not take money from his family to deliver his son-in-law's body: "They did not take money, but they took a commitment from Hamid's father and brother, and the officers were present at the funeral. We held the ceremony at the Husseiniyeh Sayyid al-Shohada, which is near the house, and the officers were also there. Hamid's father and brother went to follow up, saying that expert work should be done and then we will inform you how he was killed. We also want them to tell us the same thing: how and who fired the bullet."

Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign