Sister of Justice-Seeking Manouchehr and Mehrdad Bakhtiari: The Regime Takes 'Hard Revenge' on Our Ailing Mother

Poya Bakhtiari's aunt, whose other brother Mehrdad was also arrested on Wednesday, has released a video showing her elderly and sick mother crying and expressing concern that she will not see her other children again. In the video, which was published on Thursday, August 9, on Saba Bakhtiari's X account, Bibi Zahra Bakhtiari anxiously states, 'Five years is a long time, and I will not see my other children anymore.' Saba Bakhtiari, whose brothers Manouchehr and Mehrdad Bakhtiari are currently in prison, also wrote: 'See how the heavily armed, talkative regime takes hard revenge on the white hair and ailing body of our Bibi Zahra.' She also reported on Wednesday, August 8, that her brother had been arrested, stating: 'A few hours ago, more than 20 armed agents of the criminal regime attacked our home and violently arrested my brother Mehrdad Bakhtiari.' Saba Bakhtiari revealed that the Islamic Republic agents 'pointed a gun at my defenseless brother's head. They did not settle for the usual blindfold and wrapped his head with a scarf and brutally abducted him.' The violent arrest of Mehrdad Bakhtiari occurred just hours after he announced in a video that his other brother had been 'beaten' by agents in the Islamic Revolutionary Court and emphasized that the Bakhtiari family 'stands for Iran until the end.' In this video, Mehrdad Bakhtiari also stated that his nephew Poya Bakhtiari sacrificed his life for Iran and that two other family members, Manouchehr Bakhtiari and Nahid Shirpich, Poya's parents, are in the prisons of the Islamic Republic. Last month, another family member, Mona Bakhtiari, whose brother Poya was killed during the November 2019 protests and whose mother Nahid Shirpich and father Manouchehr Bakhtiari were imprisoned for seeking justice, stated that her parents' lives are in danger in the Islamic Republic's prisons. On July 6, she posted a message on social media saying: 'Judicial and security officials of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly promised in recent months to agree to my mother's leave, but today when I went to visit her, I found out that she had been targeted and beaten in prison.' Pressure on justice-seeking families by the Islamic Republic in Iran has been reported multiple times and continues to increase.