Four days of protests, store and school closures in protest to the torture-murder of a young man
The Iranian Resistance urges the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Human Rights Commission as well as other international human rights agencies to condemn the hideous murder of a young man and the subsequent mass arrests in Mahabad (western Iran). It also calls on them to form a fact-finding delegation to investigate this horrific crime. The international community’s silence and inaction has emboldened the ruling mullahs to continue and step up their atrocities. Time has come for the United Nations Security Council to take up the mullahs’ horrific rights record.
Seyyed Kamal Seyyed Ghader, a.k.a Shwan, a young man from the town of Mahabad, in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, and two other young men were shot by the State Security Forces (SSF) on Saturday, July 9. After his arrest, Shwan died under torture. Subsequently, SSF forces tied his body to a car and paraded it around town. They handed over the mutilated body to his family the next day.
As a political activist in Mahabad, Seyyed Ghader had played an active role in antigovernment demonstrations, especially in June.
The barbaric crime aroused tremendous anger and outrage in the city. On Tuesday, July 12, a large number of Mahabad residents staged a protest against this odious murder and clashed with the security forces. Some 50 protesters were arrested during the clashes.
Acknowledging the protests, the state-controlled daily Jomhouri Islami wrote, "A number of counterrevolutionaries provoked a group of young men to set a few tires ablaze in some streets leading to the town’s Isteghlal (Independence) square and to clash with the SSF. A group of counterrevolutionaries, riding on motorcycles, attacked the SSF as well."
Fearing the spread of protests, on Wednesday the clerical regime deployed several SSF detachments and intelligence agents and blocked all roads to and from the town. As dark fell, however, young people began chanting antigovernment slogans and clashed with the security forces. A number of SSF agents were beaten up by the youths and several of their vehicles were set on fire. Young people controlled Isteghlal, Bagh Shaygan and Posht-e Tappeh districts and confronted the SSF with rocks, sticks and Molotov Cocktails. In an attempt to crush the protest, Special anti-riot units, fired tear gas into the crowd and brutally cracked down. Dozens of people were injured or arrested.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 15, 2005