NCRI – Mr. Mahmoud Ghassemzadeh, 48, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), was brutally murdered under torture by the clerical regime on April 18.
He was arrested at his house in Babolsar (northern Iran) on April 14 by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS). He was subsequently taken to MOIS headquarters in Babol and Ghaemshahr, before being transferred to city of Sari (provincial capital of Mazandaran). Mr. Ghassemzadeh who suffered from heart and respiratory ailments, was put under torture immediately.
After four days of torture, he was transferred to Sari's Nimeh-Shaaban Hospital in critical condition on April 18 at 3 PM. Due to bureaucratic obstacles created by the MOIS agents, his treatment began with a two and half hours delay. But the doctors’ endeavors to save him were futile and he passed away at 11 PM.
In order to cover up its crime, the MOIS prevented an autopsy to be conducted and the coroner declared the reason for death as “unknown.”
According to eyewitnesses in the hospital and in the coroner office, signs of torture and injuries were visible on his body.
The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organization to condemn this heinous crime, and to take urgent measures to save the lives of political prisoners. It calls on the UN Secretary General, the Security Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to send a fact finding mission to investigate the state of the Iranian regime's prisons, political prisoners, torture as well as murder of political prisoners under torture.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 27, 2009
