Iran: Families of protesters under pressure to cooperate with regime
Published by Ali on February 11, 2020
International Liberty Association: The Iran intelligence agencies and security forces have been pressuring families of Iran protesters killed in November protest in Iran to agree with the announcement of their children as the regime’s “martyrs.” In return, they would give the family, their child’s blood money and pay them retirement salary if they announce in an interview that the child was not a protester.
The families of Iran protesters, who have talked to the press and media saying that their children were killed in the protest, are under more pressure to renounce what they have previously said, and instead say that they were government supporters. The family of Borhan Mansour-nia is one of those families.
Borhan Mansour-nia, 28, held a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine and was serving his conscript service. He was shot by live ammunition on Saturday, 16 November, 2019 and died 34 hours later in Taleqani Hospital in Kermanshah (western Iran). His family were forced to bury him at night in Marivan.
The Mansour-nia Family are reportedly under pressure to register Borhan’s name as the state’s martyr who was killed by protesters not by the state security forces. The IRGC Intelligence summoned his father last Thursday 30 January, and threatened him under interrogation.
The authorities are vehemently against dissemination of any news on Borhan and other protesters killed in the November protests. They bring pressure on the family with every published news. They send authorities and officials, such as the Friday prayer leader and the governor of Marivan and the IRGC Intelligence representative to their house for a visit, so that by taking pictures with the family and publishing the photos in the state media and press, they could announce Borhan as their own martyr.
The Mansour-nia family has refused to give in to the pressures and meet with the authorities.
It has been also reported that the family of Nasser Rezaii has been under a lot of pressure over the past days to say that their son was just passing by and he was murdered by protesters.
Nasser Rezaii, 36 from Sanandaj, was shot in the head at point blank range by security forces, in Fardis, Karaj, on 17 November, 2019. He was a graduate of agricultural engineering and had been married for only 1.5 years.
ILA:The Rezaii family has not given in to the Intelligence service demand. They have stressed that Nasser was a protester who had taken to the street to protest the regime but his cry was answered by bullets which struck him in the right eye and took his life.
