Intelligence Ministry Agents Intimidate Family of Slain Farmer Killed at Protest
Nematollah Shafiei was a bystander who was shot and killed during protests in Qahderijan, Isfahan Province, on January 2, 2018, his brother Hossein, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
“Intelligence Ministry agents came to our house and told my mother not to scream and make a fuss,” Hossein Shafiei told CHRI on January 10, 2018. “They took my brother’s ID and told us to come and pick it up after a few days and to have ‘a little conversation.’”
“Three Intelligence Ministry agents came and watched us bury him in Sed Mammad religious center,” he added.
“They can’t just kill our children and get away with it,” he said. “My brother had gone shopping for parts for his tractor. He was not into protests and such things. I was home when I got a call that my brother had been shot.
“I don’t know who killed my brother. I wasn’t there. But I will follow up,” added Hossein Shafiei.
Hossein Shafiei told CHRI the bullet penetrated his brother’s left shoulder and struck his heart. He added that a child was killed at the same time as Namatollah Shafiei.
“Nematollah died along with a kid who was around 13 or 14-years old,” he said. “He had two bullet wounds. I don’t know his name but I heard he was an orphan who lived with his mother and was the provider of the family.”
He continued: “It took five days for the authorities to deliver his [my brother’s] body to us. They have not shown us the medical examiner’s report. We buried him after they washed and delivered the corpse.
According to the Committee for the Defense of Detainees, five people died during the recent protests in Qahderijan: Gholam-Hossein Shahab (a shoe seller), Hossein Shafizadeh, Ahmad Heydari (a 13-year-old student), Mohammad Ebrahimi (a relative of Basij General Mohammad Taghi Ebrahimi) and Nematollah Shafiei (a farmer).
At least 25 people have died and more than 3,700 hundred have been arrested across Iran since the protests broke out in late December 2017.
Two protesters—23-year-old Sina Ghanbari and 22-year-old Vahid Heydari—have died in custody.
