Hengaw: A Detainee Killed After Torture at the Intelligence Office in Nahavand

The human rights organization "Hengaw" reported on Thursday, March 14, that Haidar Mohammadi (Hasanvand), a young man from Khorramabad, was killed under torture by agents of this security agency just hours after his arrest in this city and transfer to the detention center of the intelligence office in Nahavand, Hamadan province. A family member of Mohammadi told Hengaw: "At 9 AM, the forces of the Nahavand intelligence office, in collaboration with the intelligence forces of Khorramabad, stormed Haidar Mohammadi's family home and severely beat him in front of his elderly mother and sister before arresting him." The source further added: "After being transferred to the Nahavand intelligence office, Haidar Hasanvand was severely beaten by the agents of this agency, and at 3 PM that day, they contacted our family to inform us that Haidar had died and to come and collect his body." Hengaw has learned that on Thursday, Haidar Mohammadi's body was handed over to his family, showing signs of severe torture and visible bruises on his body, and they were not allowed to take photos or videos of his body. Another relative of the Mohammadi family told Hengaw that "the reason for Haidar Mohammadi's arrest was a confrontation he had with the intelligence forces on the Hamadan highway a few days prior." The killing of individuals in detention centers has seen a rising trend in recent years, and military and judicial officials have never clarified these incidents. Previously, Hengaw reported on September 7 of this year that Mohammad Mir-Mousavi, from Lahijan in Gilan province, was killed under torture by the special forces of the Islamic Republic's police after his arrest at a police station in Langeroud. Following this incident, civil activist Kambiz Norouzadeh wrote: "In recent years, deaths in detention centers and prisons have alarmingly increased." Last September, political prisoner Javad Rouhi died in the medical facility of Nowshahr prison, and while political and legal activists explicitly spoke of his murder and demanded investigations into the details of his death, government officials attempted to justify his death. Deaths in prisons or detention centers have not only affected Iranian citizens; the Swiss Foreign Ministry announced on January 10 of this year in a statement sent to the Persian section of Voice of America that Iranian government officials informed the Swiss embassy in Tehran on December 11 that a 64-year-old Swiss man had been arrested on suspicion of "espionage" and later died in Semnan prison. Other suspicious deaths of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic's prisons include Kavous Seyed-Emami, a dual national and Iranian-Canadian university professor, who died two weeks after his arrest in Evin prison, with officials claiming he had "hanged himself." However, they prevented independent investigations into the cause of his death by burying Mr. Seyed-Emami's body immediately. Previously, Sattar Beheshti, a blogger and worker, was killed in November 2012 while in the custody of the cyber police due to internal bleeding caused by torture. In recent years, with the intensification of civil protests over various issues, including hijab and economic matters, Iranian authorities have sought to instill fear and terror, thus intensifying violent encounters during arrests, forced confessions, and the issuance and execution of death sentences.