Informed Source to VOA: Rahman Zahmatkesh Tortured to Confess to Broadcasting the Lion and Sun Flag

An informed source close to Rahman Zahmatkesh, a civil activist also known as "Kouhyar Vatan-Khah," told VOA that he is under detention, interrogation, and torture to accept responsibility for the "publication of the Lion and Sun flag" in the Talesh region. The source informed the Persian section of VOA that Rahman Zahmatkesh was arrested a few days before the parliamentary elections "with beatings" in the village of "Khargahil" by agents of the Islamic Republic's intelligence and was transferred to an unknown location. According to this source close to Zahmatkesh's family, after several days of "family follow-up," judicial authorities "informed them that he is detained in the central prison of Talesh in the city of Hashtpar." This informed source, quoting "a released prisoner who was with Rahman Zahmatkesh (Kouhyar Vatan-Khah) in the same ward for a few days, said: "Kouhyar was severely tortured; he has developed a lung infection and has no access to medicine or a doctor." The released prisoner also mentioned that Rahman Zahmatkesh is "taken for interrogation three times a day and is under severe pressure to comply with the interrogators' demands, but Kouhyar, despite being physically weak and ill, remains strong against the illegal demands of the interrogators." He also emphasized: "One of the charges defined for Kouhyar is that he is responsible for the dissemination of the Lion and Sun flag in Talesh, including for the victims of the 2022 uprising in Gilan." In this context, Gohar Eshghi, the mother of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died in custody, attributed the arrest of this civil activist to his opposition to the "regime's elections" and stated that Rahman Zahmatkesh, "known as Kouhyar Vatan-Khah, is a supporter of constitutional nationalist ideals." The informed source also told VOA that this civil activist had previously been arrested during the nationwide protests in 2022 and was released on bail.