British Iranian journalist and political analyst
Security forces attacked the family home of a victim of last year’s protests and arrested several family members to stop them from marking his death anniversary.
The incident happened Thursday in Rahmatabad, a village in Qazvin Province when security forces raided the family home of Javad Heydari, 36.
Heydari who was shot dead during a protest in Qazvin on September 22, last year is buried in the village cemetery with “Women, Life, Freedom” inscribed on his grave.
“Can anyone hear my voice? They just attacked our home with bullets and tear gas … So many of them. They beat up the children, they beat up everyone … I don’t know what is happening to my family,” Fatemeh Heydari, Javad’s sister, who was not present at the time of the attack but apparently in contact through the phone, is heard saying between sobs and calling for help.
Security forces attacking the family home of Javad Heydari
“Can anyone in the world hear me? … Do you know what it means to kill your child and then attack your home with bullets on his anniversary? Do you see what they are doing to three, four-year-old children and remain silent?” she goes on to say.
A video of the incident in Heydari’s home village shows riot police outside the gates of the house firing tear gas and attacking people. Shotgun fire and children’s cries are also heard in the video. Another videos shows a teenage girl coughing and having violent convulsions from the tear gas inside the house.
According to Heydari’s sister, security forces arrested several members of the family and relatives including her brother Ruhollah and shut down the internet in the village.
Security forces stopping the family and friends of the 22-year-old Reza Shahparnia in Kermanshah from reaching the cemetery where he is buried.
The Heydari family has been under pressure in various ways since Javad’s death. Fatemeh was fired from her job at Iran’s Mapping Organization in March, and several family members including the parents were arrested in May.
Serious harassment and intimidation have also been reported on social media by several other families in various cities including the family of the 16-year-old Nika Shakarami who was allegedly thrown to her death from a rooftop in Tehran by security agents on September 20 last year.
Social media reports indicate that security forces blocked all roads leading to Nika’s grave at a cemetery in Visian, a village in Lorestan province, to prevent people from reaching the cemetery and holding an anniversary ceremony.
Nika’s mother, Nasrin Shakarami, has announced the cancellation of the ceremony to “prevent harm to participants” and her aunt, Atash Shakarami, was reportedly hospitalized Wednesday with a partial brain stroke caused by the mental pressures and threats she has been enduring.
The brother of 18-year-old Mohammad-Hossein Morovati has said in a video message posted on social media that the family were called in and told by the intelligence ministry that they were not allowed to hold a memorial service and that security agents have removed all banners and posters hung by the family on the walls of their home.
The young man was shot in the heart during last year’s crackdown on protesters in Qarchak in the south of the capital Tehran on September 21.
“The Iranian authorities’ arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment of relatives of youngsters, unlawfully gunned down or beaten to death by security forces in connection with protests, exposes their inconceivable cruelty and sinister attempt to cover up their crimes, said Amnesty International today,” Amnesty International said in December.
