Hasty burial of political prisoner Alireza Shirmohammad Ali; are they still planning to close the case?
A day after the murder of political prisoner Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali in Fashafoyeh Prison, his body was buried on Wednesday, June 12. This is while the silence of Iranian judicial authorities continues, and it is unclear why such a hasty burial was carried out in a case that requires detailed autopsy investigations.
Hasty burials are a suspicious practice of the Iranian judiciary to close murder cases. In addition to executions in the 1960s and 1970s, some victims were given quick burials after the 2009 protests. In the 1990s, one of the most famous cases was the death of blogger Sattar Beheshti, who was buried quickly after dying in detention.
Also worth mentioning is Haleh Sahabi, a political activist and daughter of Ezzatollah Sahabi, who was on leave from prison to attend her father's funeral and died in a clash with security officers. Her body was buried that same night (June 1, 2011), just a few hours after her death, without being transferred to the forensic medical examination.
After hearing about this incident, political prisoner Hoda Saber went on a hunger strike in protest and died on June 11, 2011, after being beaten by prison officers, while severely weakened by the hunger strike. Her body was buried a day later, without her family's knowledge and under strict security measures.
Alireza Shirmohammad Ali, a political prisoner in Tehran's Fashafoyeh Prison, was stabbed to death by two inmates on Monday evening, June 10.
Mohammad Hadi Erfanian Kasab, Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali's lawyer, confirmed the news in an interview with Voice of America, stating that the attack was carried out by two murder suspects who apparently had no problems with Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali.
According to this lawyer, Fashafoyeh Prison does not have proper conditions at all, and the presence of prisoners for political crimes, such as Alireza Shirmohammad Ali and Dervish Gonabadi, alongside prisoners for ordinary crimes is a cause for concern.
The murder of this political prisoner in prison has met with many reactions. Among them, Prince Reza Pahlavi wrote in a tweet: "The murder of another brave son of Iran in Khamenei's torture chambers shows that the amount of attention the media and human rights organizations pay to political prisoners of conscience is by no means sufficient. It is the duty of each of us to work to free the fighters from the tyranny of the modern tyrant."
Source: Voice of America
