Pouya Bakhtiari's grandmother: My son, Mehrdad, has been kidnapped
The grandmother of Pouya Bakhtiari, one of those killed in the November 2019 protests, announced on Sunday that her son, Mehrdad Bakhtiari, was missing.
Bibi Zahra Bakhtiari said in a short video that Mehrdad Bakhtiari left home to buy bread on Saturday evening but did not return and that he had been "kidnapped."
The video has been posted on social media, and in it, Ms. Bakhtiari addresses the Islamic Republic's officials: "You killed my daughter. You have stolen and taken my face for four months. My husband went to buy bread last night and didn't come back until morning... I cried until morning. I had my eyes on this door. Why did you steal my child?"
Manouchehr Bakhtiari, Pouya's father, traveled to Kish Island in July of this year to protest the 25-year cooperation agreement between Iran and China and to seek justice for his son's blood last month. He was arrested there and transferred to Bandar Abbas Prison.
He had previously been detained for nearly a month without a trial for insisting on holding the 40th anniversary of the November 11th massacre.
Bibi Zahra Bakhtiari continues in this video: "Islamic Republic, I have no enmity with you. Release my children so they can come. Now you have arrested Manouchehr in Bandar Abbas. Mehrdad kidnapped me here and took me away, and I don't know where he is. I cried until morning..."
Pouya Bakhtiari, who was shot in the head in Mehrshahr, Karaj, on November 15, 2019, has become one of the symbols of the November 2019 protests. She was only 27 years old at the time of her death.
In a petition to UN officials, his father has called for the formation of a commission of inquiry into the "bloody repression of protesters."
The protests of November last year, which were initially a reaction to the sudden increase in gasoline prices, quickly shifted direction and targeted the Islamic Republic government. However, these protests were met with severe repression, with hundreds of people killed.
Iran's Interior Minister has said that between 200 and 225 people were killed in these protests, but Amnesty International has announced the identities of 304 of those killed and emphasized that the death toll could be much higher.
Reuters also put the death toll at around 1,500.
Source: Radio Farda
