In a video sent to Iran International, the uncle of a man shot dead during a protest in November 2019 has accused security forces of trying to kill him. Mehrdad Bakhtiari said a mechanic had told him the brakes on his car had been disabled after he realized while driving on a highway that they did not work.
Bakhtiari was sentenced to a five-year suspended prison sentence and a two-year ban on leaving Iran in December 2020 on charges including collusion against national security. After his nephew Pouya was killed in 2019, Bakhtiari had launched a campaign with other family members including Pouya’s father to make the authorities accountable for the death of his nephew and hundreds of others allegedly killed by security forces that attracted international attention from United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and New York-based activist Masih Alinejad.
Pouya’s father, Manouchehr, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), became a critic of the Islamic Republic, a vehement opponent of Iran’s cooperation agreement with China, and an open supporter of Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince in the Pahlavi regime overthrown in 1979.
Manouchehr Bakhtiari has been arrested several times since the death of his son, including in July 2020 after he appealed to the United Nations to investigate the crackdown on the 2019 protests. He was last arrested in April and was in July sentenced to six years in prison, two years and half years internal exile, and a two-year ban on leaving the country.
Source » iranintl