Amnesty International's Call for Immediate Release of Detainees at the Memorial for Pouyandeh and Mokhtari

Amnesty International, in response to the intervention of security forces at the memorial for the victims of the chain murders and the detention of some attendees, has urged Iran to immediately and unconditionally release the detainees. In a statement released on Saturday, this human rights organization also called for Iranian authorities to conduct a swift and independent investigation into the violent events that occurred during the memorial for Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh. According to reports, security forces prevented the commemoration of the anniversary of the murders of Mokhtari and Pouyandeh, two members of the Iranian Writers' Association, at the Imamzadeh Taher cemetery in Karaj and detained several attendees. This memorial was organized by the Iranian Writers' Association to coincide with the eighteenth anniversary of the murders of Mokhtari and Pouyandeh by the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence. However, eyewitness reports indicate that several plainclothes security personnel, along with armed police officers, were present at the entrance of the Imamzadeh Taher cemetery and prevented people from entering to participate in the event. In this context, Zoya Zarafshan, daughter of Nasser Zarafshan, the current secretary of the Iranian Writers' Association, reported to Radio Farda that security forces attacked individuals who had gathered near the cemetery after being barred from attending and demanded they disperse with 'threats and insults.' Eyewitness accounts also state that five individuals, including Nasser Zarafshan, Mazdak Zarafshan, Mohammad Mahdipour, Bakhtash Abtin, and Fatemeh Sarhadi Zadeh, were detained during the intervention of security and police forces, with Nasser Zarafshan being released after several hours. Nasser Zarafshan, a lawyer for the families of Mokhtari and Pouyandeh and the current secretary of the Iranian Writers' Association, was imprisoned for five and a half years for exposing state secrets while pursuing the chain murders in the 2000s. Now, Amnesty International, citing eyewitness reports, has criticized the security forces' treatment of attendees at the memorial and called for the release of the four detainees, whose arrests were reported to be violent. In previous years, security forces have also prevented the commemoration of Mokhtari and Pouyandeh's murders at their graves in Imamzadeh Taher, Karaj. Additionally, on Tuesday, December 1, security personnel, as in previous years, prevented individuals from entering the home of the Forouhars to hold a ceremony for the eighteenth anniversary of their murders. Dariush Forouhar, leader of the Iran Nation Party, and his wife, Parvaneh Eskandari, known as Forouhar, were murdered in their home in Tehran on December 1, 1998, by knife attacks. On December 12 of the same year, Mohammad Mokhtari, a writer, poet, and member of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers' Association, and on December 18, Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, a translator and one of the most active members of the Iranian Writers' Association, disappeared, and their bodies were later found. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence declared 'rogue elements' within the ministry responsible for these four murders, which became known as the chain political murders.