Family members of man killed during Iran protests arrested

Ahead of major protests expected on December 26, internet services in several areas have been cut or curtailed

People stop their cars on a road in Tehran, Iran, on November 16, 2019 in protest against fuel price rises . Wana

Iranian authorities have arrested relatives of a young man who was shot dead during demonstrations last month, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Mehr report did not specify which of Pouya Bakhtiari’s family members had been arrested but Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of New York-based advocacy group the Centre for Human Rights in Iran said they included his parents, citing information from activists who had visited the family on Monday.

The Ministry of Intelligence and the judiciary in Karaj, a city west of Tehran, had each summoned Bakhtiari’s father, Manouchehr, twice for questioning in the past week, a report posted on CHRI’s website on Tuesday said.

They asked him to call off a commemoration ceremony in the town of Karaj on December 26 – the 40th day after his son's death, as often observed by Shiite Muslims – citing concerns it could create unrest.

Manouchehr, who in an Instagram post last week had invited local and foreign media to attend the commemoration ceremony, refused to cancel it, he told CHRI.

In a Twitter post, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “The US strongly denounces the arrest of Pouya Bakhtiari’s parents, and calls for their immediate release.

“It’s time for the international community to stand together with the Iranian people and hold the regime accountable,” he said.

CHRI said Bakhtiari, who was 27, “died of a bullet wound to the head” in Karaj on November 16.

Mehr noted that Bakhtiari had been “killed in a suspicious way” during the unrest.

Its report cited an informed source as saying the arrests were “to maintain order and security of the honourable people who have faced damages, and with the intent of preventing ... the repeat of armed action against the people”.

Security forces have been on high alert for any events that could spark further unrest after protests against a hike in fuel prices turned political last month, sparking the bloodiest crackdown in the 40-year history of the regime.

About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on November 15, three Iranian interior ministry officials told Reuters, found a report published on Monday.

That figure is much higher than estimated by international human rights groups and was dismissed as “fake news” by a spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported the semi-official news agency Tasnim.

Some family members of people killed for political or other reasons unrelated to the protests last month have also said December 26 should be a day of commemoration, CHRI said.

Ahead of the exected rallies, Internet observatory NetBlocks reported that there was mobile internet distribution in several areas of Iran.

The semi-official Iranian news agency ILNA quoted a source at the Communications and Information Technology Ministry saying that the internet shutdowns were ordered by “security authorities” and would affect the Alborz, Kurdestan and Zanjan provinces in central and western Iran and Fars in the south.

Videos that have surfaced since purport to show scenes from the crackdown that followed, including footage of security forces firing at unarmed demonstrators or beating them with batons.

The United States, France and Germany have all condemned Iran over the bloodshed.

Iran has repeatedly denied casualty figures issued abroad.

In a report on December 2, state television charged that foreign media had been "hyping up" the death toll.

It also said that security forces "had no choice but to resort to authoritative and tough confrontation in order to save people from the hands of the rioters, and a number of rioters were killed".