Mohammad Raji, Gonabadi dervish, died in custody "due to beatings"
Reports from Iran indicate that at least one dervish who was arrested during unrest on Golestan 7th Street in Tehran's Pasdaran district two weeks ago has died after being detained.
The Majzooban Noor website, which publishes news about the Gonabadi dervishes, reported on Sunday, March 4, that police officers informed the family of Mohammad Raji, a 56-year-old dervish who was arrested in the Pasdaran district during the incidents on Monday, February 20, that Mr. Raji had died.
According to this site, after officers summoned Mr. Raji's family to the police station on Shapour Street on Saturday, they announced that he was in a coma, but a day later, law enforcement officers announced that Mr. Raji had died from the injuries he sustained.
The Majzooban Noor website wrote that Mr. Raji was a commander of the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War. His daughter also told some news websites that Mr. Raji commanded several IRGC battalions during the Iran-Iraq War and had suffered from disability and lung problems during the war.
Mohammad Raji is one of hundreds of dervishes who were arrested during the unrest and clashes with police on February 20. Mr. Raji's son is also reportedly in custody.
On Monday, February 20, a group of Gonabadi dervishes gathered in front of the Pasdaran Street police station and chanted slogans to protest the continued detention of elderly dervish Nematollah Riahi.
The gathering then turned violent, with the intervention of special forces, and the Dervishes clashed with the police. Official Iranian sources later announced that three police officers were killed in the attack on a bus and two Basij forces were also killed in the incident.
Farhad Nouri, a Dervish rights activist, told the Human Rights Campaign in Iran about the situation of the Dervishes arrested in the raid by officers on Pasdaran Street in Tehran that 170 Dervishes were hospitalized in four hospitals in Tehran due to the beatings they received.
Judicial authorities have threatened to take action against the dervishes. The Majzooban Noor website also reported that the arrested dervishes have been charged with "gathering and colluding against the security of the country, propagandizing against the system, participating in illegal gatherings, and disrupting public order and peace."
In recent years, a large number of Gonabadi dervishes have been arrested and imprisoned on security charges.
The United States government and international human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned Iran's repression and violation of the rights of ethnic and religious minorities.
The latest report by the US State Department on the lack of religious freedom in some parts of the world, including Iran, refers to the persecution of Dervishes and violations of their rights, and states: "The United States will continue to be the voice of those - in Iran and around the world - who desire a peaceful life in accordance with their conscientious beliefs."
Source: Voice of America
