The Case of Acid Attacks in Isfahan Declared Closed

While the Iranian Ministry of Interior had previously reported the arrest of a suspect in the Isfahan acid attacks, on Wednesday, the lawyer representing the victims stated that the court announced the case closed due to the "failure to locate the defendant or defendants." Hossein Abbas Alizadeh, the lawyer for the victims of the Isfahan acid attacks, said in an interview with ISNA on Wednesday, July 27, "My clients had demanded compensation, and the court ruled to pay this compensation from the public treasury due to the absence of the defendant or defendants." Alizadeh reported that the case of these acid attacks has now been declared closed but added that "if at any time the defendant or perpetrators of this tragedy are identified and arrested, judicial proceedings will take place." The chain of acid attacks targeted four girls in the city of Isfahan in October 2014 by "unknown motorcyclists" and significantly impacted the social atmosphere of the city and Iran. Previously, an informed source in Isfahan had told Radio Farda that being young, poorly veiled, and beautiful were common characteristics of women who were targeted in this city. Officials in Isfahan city and province had made harsh statements against women they labeled as "badly veiled" leading up to these acid attacks. Among them, Youssef Tabatabai-Nejad, the Friday prayer leader of Isfahan, stated that "the issue of hijab has gone beyond mere admonition, and to combat bad hijab, we must raise the stick and use force." On the other hand, Mohammad Taqi Rahbar, the temporary Friday prayer leader of Isfahan, denied statements attributed to him suggesting that "enjoining good and forbidding wrong should go beyond verbal admonition" and said, "I did not say that admonition should go beyond verbal." Three years after these acid attacks, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, the governor of Isfahan, stated that he had not yet "entered" the case of the acid attacks from 2014 in the province. He added, "Up to this moment, I have not addressed this issue," and emphasized that "we have many issues, such as water, employment, the environment, and other problems that need more attention." The failure to locate the defendant or defendants comes despite Nasser Jorkesh, the father of Soheila Jorkesh, one of the victims of the Isfahan acid attacks, stating in November 2014 that the police could easily track "two motorcyclists" responsible for the acid attacks using traffic cameras. According to Jorkesh, besides traffic cameras, a fire station on the street where the incident occurred also has surveillance cameras, and the police could use footage from these cameras. Former governor of Isfahan, Rasool Zargharpour, had reported the existence of "videos" related to the Isfahan acid attacks, which he claimed "show that" the perpetrator of the Isfahan acid attacks has "psychological problems." Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recently referred to the Iranian leader's "fire at will" command as "a shot at the law" and stated that this issue had previously existed "in secrecy" and included "chain murders, the murder of several Baha'is, the Isfahan acid attacks, and serial murders of women in Mashhad." Using ISNA and Radio Farda / P. P. The assistant to Rouhani reported efforts to "draft comprehensive legislation on acid attacks." The governor of Isfahan: I have not yet addressed the issue of acid attacks. Shirin Ebadi: Khamenei's "fire at will" command is a shot at the law. Acid attacks on 16 people in Tehran: the incident is "not terrorist." The perpetrator of the recent Isfahan acid attack was identified as a daughter of the family.