Summoning of Pooja Bakhtiari's Seeking Justice Sister to the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Zanjan

Mona Bakhtiari, the sister of Pooja Bakhtiari, one of the victims of the November 2019 protests, announced on Thursday, June 1, that she has been summoned to the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Zanjan. Ms. Bakhtiari had visited Zanjan prison on Tuesday to meet her mother, but officials prevented her from entering. Mona Bakhtiari, whose parents, Manouchehr Bakhtiari and Nahid Shirpiseh, are imprisoned, stated that on April 26, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Karaj had also summoned her without sending a text message. In a video on Tuesday, along with Yashar Tabrizi, a human rights activist, she explained that she went to Zanjan prison with her uncle to visit her mother, Nahid Shirpiseh, and despite having a visitation slip, prison officials barred her from entering the visitation hall. The prison officials told her that because she is a 'Bakhtiari,' she cannot enter, and told her uncle, 'Do not bring her, you go for the visit.' Additionally, on April 27, the mother of Manouchehr Bakhtiari had addressed Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, in a video, saying, 'You have made life forbidden for me.' Pressure from the Islamic Republic officials on the families seeking justice has increased in recent months, with the detention of relatives of deceased and executed protesters intensifying. For instance, Mohammad Hashemi, a cousin of Majid Kazemi, one of the executed protesters in Isfahan, told Voice of America that the Islamic Republic officials secretly buried him, detained his brothers, and cut off his father's pension rights.