Continued Pressure on Families Seeking Justice; Farzad Moazemi Goudarzi Arrested with 'Severe Beating' in Borujerd

News sources reported the arrest of Farzad Moazemi Goudarzi, the cousin of justice-seeker Reza Moazemi Goudarzi, one of the victims of the November 2019 protests, in Borujerd. Several members of justice-seeking families and human rights sources announced on social media on Thursday, April 5, that Farzad Moazemi Goudarzi was arrested by '12 members' of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 'with severe beating' in Borujerd. According to these reports, the IRGC agents not only arrested the cousin of justice-seeker Reza Moazemi Goudarzi but also raided Farzad Moazemi's home and confiscated his and his family members' personal belongings. Reza Moazemi Goudarzi, born in 1999, was killed by government agents during the crackdown on the November 2019 protests on November 26 in Shahriar, and his body was buried in a village in Borujerd after organ donation. Farzad Moazemi Goudarzi had previously been arrested on the eve of the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death during the morality police's crackdown and the beginning of the nationwide protests in 2022. The arrest of justice-seekers and relatives of victims of the nationwide protests continues amid the Islamic Republic's ongoing repression, as UN Human Rights Council member states on Thursday, April 5, approved a resolution extending the mandate of the organization's Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran and the UN fact-finding committee for another year. Human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized the actions of the Islamic Republic's intelligence and judicial authorities in exerting pressure on justice-seekers and families of victims of the nationwide protests. For instance, the Islamic Republic's judicial authorities summoned Manouchehr Bakhtiari, a justice-seeker, online for the third time during his imprisonment. Additionally, Mashallah Karami, the father of executed protester Mohammad Mahdi Karami, who was arrested before the anniversary of the 2022 nationwide protests, remains in prison. Previously, Pouran Nazemi, a human rights activist in Iran, told Voice of America about the increasing pressures from the Islamic Republic on justice-seekers, prisoners, and political and civil activists, stating that the government has no intention of reform or retreat and that the security pressures being imposed on activists these days are 'more than in all these years' and 'it doesn't matter whether you are an environmental activist, a civil activist, or a political activist.'