The website of Majzoban Noor, Gonabadi Dervishes News Agency, has reported the death of a dervish named Mohammad Raji “due to beating and blows during interrogations”. Muhammad Raji was one of the hundreds of Dervishes who were detained on February 20 following their gathering in Tehran.
The body of Mr Raji, who was killed while in police custody was buried in Aligudarz, Lorestan province, Monday night, the dervishes’ official website Majzooban reported.
The report says that security forces and a small number of Raji’s family members were present at the burial.
Iranian security forces had reportedly ordered the body to be buried at night March 4, despite protests from his family.
It is noteworthy that regarding the killing of Mr. Raji, Ms. Heather Nauert the spokesperson of the U.S State Department in her briefing on Mach 6, 2018 had the following announcement:
“I’d like to turn to Iran right now, where we are saddened to hear that yet another prisoner of conscience has passed away while in custody. It’s being reported that Mohammad Raji, a member of the Gonabadi dervish community, passed away while being interrogated in custody in Iran. We also continue to receive disturbing reports of the Iranian regime’s ongoing forceful crackdown on the Gonabadi dervish community across the country, in which hundreds have been reported arrested and some have been hospitalized. We call on the Iranian regime to respect the rights of its citizens and to release all prisoners of conscience who are unjustly imprisoned.”
Mr. Raji’s family told Majzoban Nour that Shahpour intelligence officials had contacted them several times on Saturday (March 3rd) and asked them to go to the intelligence office to identify the prisoner with photos and documents. The agents told the Raji family that the move was aimed at identifying prisoners.
According to Raji family, when they went to the intelligence office on Sunday, the intelligence agents told them that Mohammad Raji was in Coma but a few hours later they inform the family that he passed away. According to Majzoban Nour, when the family go to the police station (intelligence office) they announced that he died due to blows on him during interrogation.
It is, of course, strange that the police confess that a prisoner was killed during interrogation. Nevertheless, it is clear that on February 20 large numbers of Dervishes were subjected to beating and mayhem and hundreds of them were arrested while injured.
Mohammad Raji has had no contact with his family since he was arrested on February 20.
He was a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards during the eight years Iran-Iraq war commanding several battalions in Kurdistan region. He was also injured during the war.
Raji was born in 1961 in Aligoudarz and defected and separated from the Revolutionary Guards in 2004. He has been working on farming in his hometown ever since.
This Gonabadi Dervish has five children and right now one of his children, Mohammad Ali Raji, who was arrested during the incidents on February 20, is now imprisoned in Fashafouyeh prison (central prison of greater Tehran) in southern Tehran.
According to Majzoban Nour website, a number of Dervishes are accused of “assembly and collusion against the country’s security and propaganda against the system, participating in illegal gatherings and disturbing public order,” and are transferred to Qarchak prison after a bail is issued for them.
Source » ncr-iran