Judicial Official Announces Trial of 'Bus Driver Who Ran Over Three Police Officers' on March 10

The trial session of 'one of the Gonabadi dervishes', who allegedly ran over and killed three police officers with a bus, will be held on Sunday. According to Tasnim News Agency, Mohsen Eftekhari, head of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province, announced that the trial of this 'Gonabadi dervish' will take place on Sunday, March 10, in the second branch of the Tehran Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Kashkooli. He added that 'the preliminary session of this case was held last week, and since the judges did not observe any defects in the case, the trial date was set.' Hossein Rahimi, commander of Tehran's police, had previously announced that the bus driver, who allegedly ran over and killed three police officers, would be executed before the end of the year. The Tehran prosecutor had earlier stated that the families of the three deceased officers requested 'retribution.' Conservative media have published a picture of an individual named 'Yavar Mohammad Thalath', identifying him as the bus driver involved in the incident. Iranian television also aired a video of Mr. Thalath, who appeared to have been severely beaten, stating that he became 'angry' and that he was 'sitting behind the bus' as he was the 'bus driver.' He also claimed in the video, where the interviewer's questions are not clear, that he did not intend to 'kill' the officers. While judicial officials emphasize 'swift and expedited' punishment for the detained Gonabadi dervishes involved in the Pasdaran street clashes, dozens of political and civil activists stated in a recent statement that the news about the 'immediate and expedited trial' of the detained dervishes 'preemptively undermines the principle of independence and impartiality of the court.' On Tuesday, February 19, a protest gathering of Gonabadi dervishes around the house of Nourali Tabandeh, the leader of this order, turned violent due to the intervention of security forces and plainclothes motorcyclists. Previously, the Human Rights Defenders Center, chaired by Shirin Ebadi, reported human rights violations in Iran in February, noting that 'the presence and intervention of Basij forces at the scene of incidents is the source of many unfortunate events in street protests.' Meanwhile, while Nourali Tabandeh, the leader of the Gonabadi dervishes, has called on his followers to remain calm and appointed representatives to negotiate with officials, attacks from close associates of the Supreme Leader against this group continue. The Gonabadi dervishes' gathering on February 19 initially began in front of Police Station 102 in Pasdaran, northern Tehran, in protest against the arrest of a dervish named Nematollah Riahi. About two weeks prior, the Gonabadi dervishes had gathered after reports emerged about the establishment of a checkpoint near Nourali Tabandeh's house, which also turned violent due to security forces' intervention. Government actions against this group intensified in 2005, when widespread destruction of Gonabadi dervish prayer houses began in various cities of Iran, leading to the arrest of many dervishes. The Human Rights Defenders Center stated in an open letter to the UN Secretary-General in 2014 that Gonabadi dervishes have faced 'continuous harassment such as imprisonment, deprivation of social rights, and threats' for over 15 years.