{"id":90491,"date":"2020-11-17T07:21:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T12:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=90491"},"modified":"2020-11-17T07:21:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T12:21:56","slug":"auto-draft-321","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/11\/17\/auto-draft-321\/","title":{"rendered":"Families of Iran\u2019s Slain November 2019 Protesters Say Pursuit of Justice Thwarted by Govt\u2019s Broken Promises"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – One year after Iranians began anti -government protests that drew the deadliest crackdown by security forces in decades, families of some slain protesters have lost hope for justice from an Islamist theocracy that has offered them little but broken promises and threats.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s government sparked the\u00a0nationwide\u00a0demonstrations\u00a0on November 15, 2019\u00a0by ordering a 50% increase in the subsidized price of gasoline, further straining the finances of Iranians facing high unemployment and inflation in a shrinking economy under heavy U.S. sanctions.\u00a0Security forces killed hundreds of\u00a0people\u00a0and arrested thousands more while\u00a0crushing\u00a0the mostly peaceful\u00a0protests, in which some people also damaged public buildings and businesses.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a series of interviews with Iran-based sources in late October, VOA Persian learned that families of five slain protesters have suffered similar kinds of disappointments in their pursuit of accountability for the killings of their loved ones. VOA cannot independently confirm the details of the families\u2019\u00a0interactions with Iranian authorities as it is barred from reporting\u00a0from\u00a0inside Iran.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pouya Bakhtiari, 27,\u00a0became one of the highest-profile casualties of the protests after his killing on November 16, 2019 by a gunshot to the head in the\u00a0northern city of Karaj.\u00a0The incident\u00a0drove his father Manouchehr to become an outspoken government critic whom authorities have arrested twice.<\/p>\n

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\"Manouchehr<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Slain Iranian Protester\u2019s Activist Father Detained by Iran for 2nd Week Following Rearrest<\/div>\n
Family member tells VOA that Manouchehr Bakhtiari, whose son Pouya was killed in Iran\u2019s November 2019 protests, was still in detention as of July 20, seven days after his rearrest<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Pouya\u2019s uncle and Manouchehr\u2019s brother Mehrdad Bakhtiari told VOA that the prosecutor\u2019s office in Karaj initially called the family and said it opened a case to find the young man\u2019s killer. But he said authorities later asserted that those responsible for killing Pouya and other young protesters were antigovernment agents who came from outside Iran rather than its security forces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been lying for 41 years,\u201d\u00a0Mehdrad\u00a0Bakhtiari said, referring to the length of time Shiite clerics have been leading Iran since seizing power in its 1979 Islamic Revolution.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four days after\u00a0Mehdrad\u2019s\u00a0October 29 interview with VOA, his mother Zahra Bakhtiari appeared in a Twitter video, saying security forces had detained\u00a0Mehdrad\u00a0and taken him to an unknown location.<\/p>\n