Testimony of Abbas Dehghan
I am Abbas Dehqan. I was born on September 21, 1983, in Behbahan, Khuzestan. Since my adolescence I have been fond of mystical poetry by poets like Hafez and Sa’di. In 1999, some friends introduced me to Dr. Tabandeh (Qotb [spiritual leader] of the Ne'matollahi Gonabadi Order) and I started to participate in gatherings at his home. In 2001, I became a Darvish. At that time there were some Darvishes in my extended family, but I was the first one in my immediate family.
Darvish gatherings are held every Sunday night and every Friday night at the time of the evening Call to Prayer, and also at dawn and during the morning on Fridays, in every town in Iran and even in many towns outside of Iran, almost simultaneously. Since then, the number of Darvishes increased and these gatherings became even more crowded. Dr. Tabandeh appointed three people in Rasht, Hamedan, and Gerash (Hormozgan Province) to increase the number of people who could enroll new people into the Order. Security institutions were very sensitive in these matters and that was why they put pressure on the Elders (leaders of the Order). Wherever the Elders traveled, the Information Ministry would bother them because many people were attracted to Sufism. For example, one time in the Noorabad area of Fars Province, I was present when 400 people joined the Order. Of course, being a Darvish and having allegiance to this Order has nothing to do with the greater community, and it is basically a matter of faith. But the government was sensitive to this issue. For instance, they were more sensitive to the gatherings of one of our Elders in Karaj, which was very well attended. I remember in 2007 some people became Darvishes. They had specifically been told not to tell anybody and not to let the word get out. This aroused our curiosity and we realized they were relatives of some government figures. If I knew this, of course the security organizations would also know about it. At that time there was a lot of pressure in Karaj. Every week, after Friday prayers, a group of people would come throw rocks and shout obscenities. Sometimes they would spread rumors that they were going to demolish the Darvishes’ Spiritual Center. They could not accept that the number of Darvishes had increased and was going to continue to increase. In general, the number of people coming to spiritual centers in 2007 was not at all comparable to what it was in 1996, these centers had become much more crowded.
There are no recorded statistics on the population of Darvishes and the Elders of this order do not keep membership records. Anecdotally, the number of Darvishes is estimated to be between two million to seven or eight million. Of course, the increase in numbers does not mean that anybody who wants to become a Darvish will be accepted. In my case, from the time I wanted to become a Darvish until the time I became a Darvish, it took three or four years. In addition to spiritual requisites, joining the community of Darvishes requires one to be gainfully employed, to abstain from drugs, and not to be involved in criminal activities such as stealing, etc.
History of the persecution of Darvishes and Sufis
Persecution of Sufis also has a historical background. There have always been differences between followers of Sharia and followers of mysticism. That is why people like Mansur Al-Hallaj (858-922 AD) and Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani (1098-1131 AD) were killed. However, the beginning of the problems of the Gonabadi Darvishes can be traced to the demolition of the Qom Spiritual Center in 2005. Of course. there had been pressures from the government before that. In the beginning of the revolution, in 1979, the Amir Soleymani Spiritual Center, belonging to the Gonabadi Darvishes in Tehran, was burned and destroyed. Also, the resting place of one the Qotbs* in Shah Abdol Azim area was razed. The previous leader of the Darvishes, Mr. Haj Ali Tabandeh “Mahboub Alishah,” who was Dr. Tabandeh’s predecessor, was eliminated in 1997 during the pre-planned Serial Murders. Differences between the Darvishes and the government is nothing new.
*Qotb is a title given to the leader and head of the Darvishes. People who are authorized by the Qotb to accept people into the Darvish Order are called Shaykh (Elder). Ne'matollahi Gonabadi Darvishes call their gathering hall Hosseiniyeh.
Ever since Dr. Nur Ali Tabandeh became the leader of the Darvishes (from 1997 until his passing on December 24, 2019), the situation became even more sensitive. Mr. Tabandeh was a judge and at one point he had been an attorney. Politically, he was associated with the Freedom Movement of Iran. He was part of the government of Mr. Bazargan and he was politically active. Even after the revolution he was imprisoned and tortured for signing the 90-Signature Letter* (to Hashemi Rafsanjani).
*The 90-Signature Letter was a critical letter written in 1990, by members of the Society for the Defense of Freedom, to president at the time Hashemi Rafsanjani. Publishing this letter led to the arrest and imprisonment of several of its signatories.
In fact, the government was under the impression that when the previous Qotb (Mahboub Alishah) was eliminated, the group would disintegrate, but it turned out that the person who replaced him had a new outlook on the Darvishes. Up until the leadership of Dr. Nur Ali Tabandeh, it was thought that Darvishes did not participate in politics, and that they were hermits and recluses. This was not so. Even before that time, there were Darvishes who were political activists. What was new was that the Darvish leadership openly announced members of this Order were free to engage in any activity they deemed appropriate. Dr. Nur Ali Tabandeh repeatedly asserted in his talks and in his statements that, “The Darvish Order does not enter into politics but Darvishes are free to participate in politics,” and to serve their fellow countrymen in any way they can, and that not only did this not contradict mysticism, it was actually acting on your beliefs.
The government did not like this point of view. That is why they demolished our spiritual centers and our worship centers one by one, starting in 2005. They were firing us from our jobs and this was a huge injustice. Actually, the government treated the Darvishes the same way they treated the Baha’is.
(Between 2005-2011, there were many instances of demolition, forcible closure or threats of closure of Darvish spiritual centers reported in Qom, Borujerd, Shahre Kord, Esfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, Bandar Abbas, and Kish.)
Majzooban Noor (Enchanted by the Light) News Outlet
Majzooban Noor news outlet was established in 2006 by some people who regularly attended Dr. Tabandeh’s gatherings and who were familiar with his outlook on political matters. The core group who started this site were people who were interested in political activity, journalists, or jurists and lawyers. Of course, some Darvishes – especially those who had a more conservative point of view – had some disagreements with this site. The main purpose of this site was to publicize the pressures on the community of Darvishes. This site also provided legal advice on dealing with summons and interrogations. If someone needed an attorney, they would recommend appropriate professionals. Although these activities did not incite violence, nor were they illegal, the government did not tolerate the advice and the interviews. In fact, this site reported about suppressions, boycotts, and peoples’ violated rights.
For these reasons, in 2011, the managers of the Majzooban Noor site were arrested. They were incarcerated for four years and some of their law licenses were revoked. The government was trying to establish a link between the Majzooban Nur site and Dr. Nur Ali Tabandeh himself. They wanted the managers of Majzooban Noor to say that this site was operated under the direct supervision of Dr. Tabandeh. At the same time, government agents pressured Dr. Tabandeh to tell the managers of the site to abandon this project and to return to their own affairs. Government agents would ask Dr. Tabandeh: “Doesn’t being a Darvish (include) the relationship between the devotee and his object of devotion? Are these people not under your direct rule?” Dr. Tabandeh would answer: “The Majzooban Nur website is run by Darvishes who work as they see fit.” Dr. Tabandeh never gave an order for the site to be shut down. In the site, it had been clearly stated that this was an independent news outlet and that it was not directly under the supervision of the leaders of the Order. Since we knew that these activities were in line with the teachings of the Darvish Order, we were ready to pay the price.
During these years, the Darvishes organized many gatherings. For instance, I would contact Darvishes from different cities about carrying out some activity, and in response, fifty or a hundred people would come from different parts of Iran. During interrogations they would say, “you are the commander of the operations of Majzooban Nur.” I would tell them, “Majzooban Nur is only a news outlet. What do you mean by commander of operations and military arm?” The extent of what I would do was to make some contacts. For example, I would text ten people and tell them to gather at a certain place.
February 21, 2009; The Day of Darvishes
One of the gatherings of the Darvishes was to be held in front of the Parliament building on February 21, 2009. With this gathering they intended to bring to the attention of the Parliament representatives that they objected to the destruction of the spiritual centers of the Darvishes, security forces arrests, and dismissal from jobs and universities. However, on that day, all of the entry points towards the building were blocked and things were set up so that the gathering did not happen. Even so, that day was registered as The Day of Darvishes.
December 2017; Sit-in in front of Evin Prison
In December 2017, there was an atmosphere rife with tension throughout the country. Civil unrest started in Mashhad and spread to other cities. In all of these events that happened all over the country, there might have been some Darvishes who participated as individuals, but there were none who participated formally under the Darvish name. Even so, security forces contacted us and asked why Darvishes had published pictures of people killed in the Izeh demonstrations (which had gotten a lot of attention at the time) on Instagram and Twitter. According to security forces, this was increasing tensions and was an anti-government activity. We felt we were observing these events and reacting to them just like any other citizen or activist. The Darvish society was not involved. Darvishes participated in these events and protests which took place all over the country, and there were quite a few of them. Therefore, the Darvishes participating in the demonstrations of December 2017 did not do so as devotees of Dr. Tabandeh. They participated in these protests as individuals, all over the country, and they sustained some damages too.
Around this time, Mr. Hamid Moradi, one of the managers of Majzooban Nur, who had spent time in prison, happened to be in Dey Hospital. Since he was well-liked, many Darvishes went to see him. On December 30, I was told that there had been an altercation at the hospital and some of our friends had been arrested. When I got there, the police were still there. Four people had been arrested: Mr. Kasra Nuri, Mr. Mohammad Reza Darvishi, Mr. Mohammad Sharifi Moqaddam, and Ms. Fa’ezeh Abdipour. There were also two other people arrested, who were released the following day. We went to Evin Prison that same night to follow up, and contacted some friends to arrange a sit-in in front of the prison. People gradually joined our sit-in and families stayed there around the clock for eleven days and nights. Government agents approached us many times to engage with us, but it didn’t work. We were objecting to the fact that these four people had been illegally arrested and had been subjected to beatings and assault. Some plainclothes officers had arrested the Darvishes in the hospital without a warrant or an ID card and had taken them away in cars with private license plates. They had even fired their guns in the air in the lobby of Dey Hospital and had beaten people up. When we asked them about the reason for these arrests, they replied, “publishing posts about the people killed in Izeh!”
During the first few days of the sit-in, they tried hard to disperse us, but since we had our families with us, they could not treat us badly. For instance, I had my three-year-old son with me.
After a few days, someone approached us and told us to send a representative to talk to them. We said we didn’t have a representative. Rather, a few of us would come and listen to them so that they could come back and inform the rest of us. After that, we would be able to make a decision as a group. Eventually, my friends Mr. Mohammad Karima’i and Mr. Ne’mat Riahi and myself went into the Area 33 Prosecutor’s office, which is right next to Evin Prison, to discuss our grievances. During the discussion, we objected to the beatings and assaults and the way our friends had been arrested. There was someone there who introduced himself as Rostami. He clearly said, “Our agents made a mistake. They didn’t realize what kind of people they were dealing with!” When we wanted to explain about the beliefs and lifestyle of the Darvishes, he said, “You don’t need to explain to me. I am a representative from the office of Sects and Denominations at the Information Ministry, and I know all of this.” We said if our friends are not released, many more people will join us at our sit-in. They threatened us and said they would take us inside so we could be with our friends in prison, to which we immediately replied that we would be happy to do so because we have committed the same crimes as they had. Eventually Mr. Rostami exited the room, came back, said our meeting was over, and we left.
The sit-in lasted about ten days. At that point, family members of other prisoners also came to the prison to find out about their family members. The agents tried hard to separate us from these families and students who had come to the prison. They had threatened the families that if they joined us, it would turn out badly for their children. We tried to console the worried families and help them feel better. When some students and activists who wanted political prisoners to be freed joined us, the agents tried to separate us from them. The agents came to us and said they are political and they are enemies of the government. A couple of days before the end of the sit-in, military forces arrived in motorcycles and maneuvered aggressively in front of us. Some activists started chanting “Political prisoners must be freed.” The agents grabbed one of the students and were about to take him away, when Mr. Ne’mat Riahi rescued the student and a bit of a physical altercation ensued. I saw one of the agents tell Mr. Riahi: “Old man, I will not forget your face.” This probably had an effect on things that happened to Mr. Riahi later on. Afterwards, some of us joined the group of students. We all sat together on the ground and sang “Yar-e Dabestani” (School Friend).
Two days later, on January 9, the group of Darvishes grew larger, to about 500-600 people. At 5 or 6 PM, security suddenly tightened, there were many more agents, and they constantly threatened us. Darvishes started shouting “Allah-u Akbar” (God is Great) in front of Evin Prison and continued until night time. Mr. Fayz from the Information Ministry, and Shahrooz from Sarallah Corps, tried hard to quiet down the group, but it didn’t work. From day one, we had one request: Unconditional release of four prisoners who had been arrested for no reason. The Darvishes shouting Allah-u Akbar lasted until about 11 PM. Eventually they came to us and said they would release our friends on bail. We told them we would not post bail. They told us to bring a deed, then they said to bring a paycheck stub, and then proof of insurance! I told Mr. Fayz, not only will we not bring a paycheck stub, we will not even sign anything. In the end, they released Mr. Mohammad Sharifi Moqaddam and Ms. Fa’ezeh Abdipour from Evin Prison. We were very happy. There was an atmosphere of jubilant victory tinged with tension. I remember while we were talking to Colonel Hassanpour, telling him that we would not leave until the two other prisoners were also released, a lower rank agent slapped me. I told Colonel Hassanpour, “This is a sign of your leadership that someone of a lower rank slaps me against your orders, while I am talking to you. If I relay this to the friends who are here, this will become a difficult and dangerous incident.” I don’t know if what that agent did was with orders or against orders, but they really wanted to change the mood of the moment from happiness to physical altercations so that they could viciously suppress us. They felt the prisoner release was a slap in their face. They had been on high alert for ten days, but we had been given what we wanted and they had had to pull back. Eventually, the other two prisoners, Kasra Nuri and Mohammad Reza Darvishi, were released from Raja’i Shahr Prison, where they had been taken without our knowledge. When we ascertained that they had been released, we cleared out.
After the event in front of Evin Prison, channels such as Adyan News and Ferqeh News and people like Ra’efipour, who is a famous government speaker and analyst, complained about the fact that our government forces were too weak to confront a group of Darvishes and that revolutionary forces should enter the fray. Mr. Ra’efipour put it this way, “You were wrong to arrest them. Now that you arrested them, you shouldn’t have released them.” In this way they intended to put the Darvishes in their place. Two weeks later, on January 24, 2018, they set up a checkpoint on Golestan 7 Street and this was the beginning of the friction between Darvishes and plainclothes forces.
Tense Days Before the Golestan 7 Event
It took one month from the time we began gathering on Golestan 7 Street until we were arrested. The main reason we were on that street was that the security forces were there. We were very worried that the incidents that had happened in past years would happen again. There were also overt threats on social media platforms, such as Twitter. Under my posts on Twitter, a group of two or three people would post comments like ‘Just wait and see. We will repeat what we did in Charmahin and all of this will be done away with.’ Or they would write, ‘The time has passed for actions without consequences,’ and other such comments.
(On June 30, 2008, government forces used heavy equipment to completely demolish the home of a Gonabadi Darvish in the city of Charmahin. This home had been a gathering place for Darvishes.)
These types of comments on social media were posted more and more often, and the effect of what was being written on social media became evident on Golestan 7 Street. Some “fire at will” people [extremist Basij members who feel they are able to act independently without waiting for official orders] would come and shout obscenities. They would take pictures of Dr. Tabandeh’s house. These actions made the atmosphere more tense every day.
Someone named Mr. Fayz called me on my cell phone. Thirty days earlier, this man had introduced himself as the plenipotentiary representative of the Information Ministry at our sit-in in front of Evin Prison, and we had talked together. He had found my mobile number and called me to say he was two blocks away, asking me to come over there so we could talk. Another person named Shahrooz – who had said he was from Sarallah Corps – was with him. A few friends and I told the others and went to meet them. They talked to us on the street and told us to break up the gathering. At this point they were not threatening. We said that when six gun-toting people in a vehicle drive past the home of Dr. Tabandeh several times and make the atmosphere more tense, we get worried and we don’t like to leave the area. If they control what goes on, the tensions will decrease. They promised us that nothing would happen and that they would go and talk to those people.
On the morning of Sunday February 4, 2018, there was a Darvish gathering at the home of Dr. Tabandeh. About 12 heavy motorcycles, driven by armed people in military dress, entered Golestan 7 Street. At first they had a verbal altercation with one of the Darvishes. Then we heard another of the Darvishes cry out and the altercation became physical. Since there were many more Darvishes, they were able to repel them. The motorcycle riders succumbed to the crowd; they left their motorcycles and went away. There is a video on social media showing some military motorcycles abandoned on the street.
After this happened, the two people we had met previously, Mr. Fayz and Sardar Taheri, came and met with us again. We thought they wanted to improve the atmosphere. They said they did not have any enmity with Dr. Tabandeh and that he was not going to be arrested; All this while talk of Dr. Tabandeh’s arrest had been published by media other than that of the Darvish community, and a few days later Amad News published evidence for this.
February 19, 2018, In Front of Pasdaran 102 Police Station
The rally in front of the police station happened at about 5 PM. The reason for the rally was that Ne’mat Riahi, one of the Darvishes who had been at Golestan 7, had been arrested. I had taken my wife for prenatal sonography and got to the rally a little later. It was still light. The Darvishes were chanting Allah-u Akbar in front of the police station. Colonel Tajereh came out and told the crowd to stand in a way that wouldn’t block access to the building. He announced: “I have contacted the officials, Mr. Ne’mat Riahi will be released in 20 minutes.” We waited for his release. There were no altercations or arrests. Suddenly the shooting started. They were firing military-grade firearms and shotguns expelling pellets. Several people were arrested, including Mr. Sa’id Karima’i and Mr. Akbar Beiranvand. Even though there were a lot of civilians not involved with the protest there, they were shooting indiscriminately, and people were yelling and screaming and running away. I saw Mehdi Ma’navi sitting down and holding his left eye. He wore glasses but the bullet had broken the glass and entered his eye and unfortunately blinded him. It was not possible to get him medical help. Some friends helped him to get to Golestan 7 Street, but then the roads were blocked off and it was not possible to get him to hospital. Another one of our friends, Sa’id Soltanpour was shot in the head. Our friends took him straight to the hospital, where he was arrested.
After the shootings, we saw a large group of IRGC forces and armed men who were walking towards Golestan 7 Street. One of the Darvishes shouted “Golestan 7” and we all got ourselves to Golestan 7 Street. It was hard to breathe due to all the tear gas the armed forces had released. A lot of government forces had taken up positions around the intersection of Amir Ebrahimi Street, up and down Golestan 7 Street. Also, at the end of Golestan 7, where it dead ends into military barracks, I saw that on the other side of the barracks gate there were many government forces. They had closed off the roads from a long distance away. Friends who wanted to join us were saying they were stuck in traffic and could not get close, but there were more and more government forces arriving. There were police and Guard forces with black and navy-blue uniforms. Plainclothes forces had not yet showed up. They were all coming towards the street when the bus incident happened.
The Bus Incident
I should explain that there was a bus parked on Golestan 7 Street that Darvishes used for resting. But the moving bus that we saw in videos happened at 8 PM. I saw the full video after I was released. At that point I was on Amir Ebrahimi Street and I couldn’t see Golestan 7 Street. This incident surprised both sides and caused a long pause in the altercations. The bus had hit the security forces. They announced that the bus driver was a Darvish named Mohammad Salas and that three policemen/soldiers had been killed. The last time I had seen Mr. Mohammad Salas that day had been in front of the police station, before the shooting began. He can be seen in videos from that day.
Bloody Conflict During the Night at Golestan 7 Street
After the bus incident, some members of the Police and Information Ministry went to the home of Dr. Nur Ali Tabandeh for negotiations. As a result of these talks, they had agreed that both sides, Darvishes and police forces, would evacuate the area and that only a few Darvish cars would remain. However, we could see that there were more and more plainclothes forces arriving, until the police were not in control anymore and the plainclothes forces were running the show.
They surrounded the Darvishes from both ends of the street and began to attack. I believe the plain clothes forces that showed up that night were not in a normal condition. Their demeanor was not at all ordinary. It was not like the altercations and conflicts I had experienced previously. Their mouths were open and their tongues were sticking out. They were shouting extremely loudly and it was as if they had no control over the force of their beatings. They were hitting to kill. Most of them were 20 to 24 years old. They were even fighting the police. They were all wearing cloth pants and plain shirts and most of them had batons and rebars. The soldiers were carrying guns like Colts and shotguns. Many of the Darvishes were shot. Some were shot in the eyes by shotgun pellets, like Mohsen Norouzi and Ahmad Barakohi, who were both unfortunately blinded in one eye.
After that, a water tanker came from Pasdaran Street and sprayed us and the whole street. Some friends and I were in a parking garage opposite the home of Dr. Tabandeh. They were constantly throwing tear gas and shooting at the door so that we could not get out. Then they came into Golestan 7 Street and started beating people. Even though it was cold, they tried to take off our clothes. This was both demeaning and made the beatings more painful. They tried to take off my clothes, but it was not easy since they were wet. All I could do was hold my hands in front of my face so that I would not get hurt. Someone shouted, “Why is his face still unhurt?” Some people then attacked me. I still had my hands over my face but they kicked my face with their boots with such force that it broke my fingers. I had fallen to the ground from the force of the beatings. I held the hood of my jacket over my face so that it would not get hurt. Several people were trying to kill me with their beatings, and after a while I passed out.
During those last moments some people were trying to forcibly enter the home of Dr. Tabandeh, but the police were preventing them, saying they had orders from higher up that nobody is to enter the home; not Basij Forces, not Revolutionary Guards, nor anybody else.
The attacks were very forceful. Even my little son had been beaten. The spray and tear gas sprayed on his face made breathing very difficult for him. I heard later that one of the plainclothes agents had tried to hit my son in the head with a rebar. At that moment one of the police commanders had pointed a Colt at him and had threatened to shoot him if he continued, and the police commander was able to stop him. After that, one of my friends took my son and some of the other children who were there to a neighboring home. Even so, after the attacks in the street subsided, the forces attacked the neighboring homes. They searched the houses to make sure none of the Darvishes remained there. I was told the neighbor who had taken in our children had also been beaten and assaulted, and the children were taken from him. One of the Darvishes saw my child – who was shouting for me – and he had told the agents that his mother had just been arrested. They took my son and my wife to Qarchak Prison together. Even though my wife was pregnant at the time, they beat and assaulted her too.
At daybreak they piled all of us injured people together and brought vehicles to take us away. On the way, the plainclothes agents continued to beat us with whatever they had in hand. A large man in military clothes came and lifted me up. I was almost unconscious. He said, “Keep your head down.” I didn’t want to be beaten again, so I held my head down. That day was the anniversary of the passing of Fatemeh Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammad. That agent had told the plainclothes agents, “For Zahra’s sake, don’t beat him anymore. He has been beaten a lot.” I thought it would be ok. I lifted my head for an instant to see what was going on around me, and at that moment, someone hit me in the chest with such a forceful karate kick that he broke my sternum. I muttered under my breath, “What kind of Zahra is this…” and I fell to the ground. They started shouting that I had insulted Zahra, and they started kicking me all over again. After that I don’t know what happened. I opened my eyes and saw that they were piling us all with bloodied heads and bodies into a bus.
When I came to, my nose was broken. I heard from my friends later on that they had stacked the injured people and a lady had filmed us in that situation. During that time, someone who was unconscious had broken my nose.
They put us in a car. Someone came and told the driver to go to Shapour Police Station. The driver started to drive in that direction. On the way to Shapour Police Station, the driver kept bragging that we were done. They threatened that we would be raped and torn into pieces. Shapour Police Station was known for violence and murder.
Arrest and Explanation of Charges at Shapour Police Station
In my opinion, during this incident, the management of the repressive forces changed many times. At first it was the police. Then anti-riot forces and the IRGC, and finally the whole thing came under the control of the plainclothes forces. At that point the will of the police and even their commanders was not obeyed. When I was released from prison five years later, and I went to Shapour Police Station to retrieve my car, both the security police and the Revolutionary Guard denied having been the arresting agents. Neither force accepted responsibility for arresting me. I told them somebody must have arrested me and sentenced me to five years in prison!
Anyway, we were taken by bus from Golestan 7 to Shapour Police Station. All of the arrested Darvishes were received at Shapour Police Station. They fingerprinted and photographed everybody. Without any explanation or question, they gave each of us a form to sign. I don’t remember the charges on that form, but the amount of bail was written on it. The assistant prosecutor who had written my decision was Aqamiri. Right when he put the form in front of me to sign, Rostami, the man whom we had talked with in front of Evin Prison, came and saw me. He said, “He was the leader of the sit-in and the main instigator of that incident.” Then he pointed to the form and said he was adding a zero to the amount of my bail. That day, he changed the amount of my bail from 50 million Tomans to 500 million Tomans. Of course, at that time, we had all only been assigned bail, and there was not going to be any possibility of posting bail until the investigations had been completed.
Damages and Serious Injuries, Transfer to Hospital
They transferred people with serious physical conditions to the hospital. Some of them spent several days in the hospital before being taken to prison. Most of the medical interventions were done hastily. When they took me to the hospital and took x-rays, they didn’t even wait for the results. They took me to prison. They just wanted to be able to say that they had taken the injured to hospital. Many of our friends were released from Imam Sajjad Hospital while they still had severe injuries. Most of them were transferred to prison with bandages and stitches, and the unsanitary conditions in prison and the lack of medical care resulted in some people’s wounds becoming infected. In prison, our friends were forced to clean out their infected wounds with primitive devices – such as canned fish lids – so that they wouldn’t get worse.
Two of my ribs on the left side were broken and I also had damage to my ribcage. The thumb and forefinger of my right hand were broken, and so was my nose. The rest of my injuries were not fractures, mostly severe bruising. From the back of my neck to the back of my waist, and my calf, were completely black. My head was swollen as a result of blows from rebars, wood, batons, and from being kicked by people in boots. I had severe headaches. My whole body was so badly swollen and everything hurt so much that I could only get dressed with the help of my friends.
I did not have any lacerations, but there were several people who had been injured by machetes and knives. Each person had been injured in some way. The blows I sustained to my head caused the pupil of my eye to be displaced and unfortunately I developed double vision. The beatings of that night, and also the physical torture during interrogations – especially blows to my head at Shapour Police Station – caused hearing loss. Even five years after those events, I still hear whistling in my ear.
From Imam Sajjad Hospital they transferred us back to Shapour Police Station, and from there to Greater Tehran Prison. About 450 of us were transferred to Greater Tehran Prison and more than 300 people were released from Shapour Police Station.
On the way to Greater Tehran Prison, they had cuffed us together in pairs, with plastic handcuffs. They constantly cursed us, intimidated us, and threatened us. Before we entered the prison, they made us run a gauntlet they called ‘The Tunnel of Beatings.’ As we got off the bus, we had to go through a tunnel of soldiers who beat us with batons and kicked us and beat us as much as they could, until we finally entered the inner yard of the Greater Tehran Prison, Fashafuyih.
Being Moved Around Between Prisons and Detention Centers
Greater Tehran Prison is a very large and extensive prison. They divided the 450 of us into three halls, referred to as The Ward Dedicated to Darvishes. Our group, about 208 people, were taken off the bus in front of the 4th brigade of the prison.
The section they had taken us to was supposed to be for solitary confinement, but they put 208 people into 8 cells. It was so crowded that we were right next to each other and we slept like books on a shelf. I was in the sixth room, a small room for four people which now held 21.
The next day, agents came and took one of the Darvishes, Mr. Hossein Askari, with them. They said his family had come to pick him up. A few days later, a group came from the Information Ministry to start interrogations. One of them became known as “Vulture” among us, because he said it so often. During interrogations he addressed everybody as “vulture.” Among the Darvishes who were taken for interrogation in groups, they identified a few people as members of Majzooban Nur site. They gave us a form and told us to: “Write down your particulars. If you have a car, write down the model.” I had a Samand. Hossein Askari, who had been taken a few days before that, also had a Samand.[A Samand car was allegedly involved in hitting and causing the death of a Basij member]. Therefore, the next day they came and took me to Shapour police station in a car.
At Shapour Police Station, they first took me to a place known as “reception.” During a brutal encounter, they talked about murder. I said we were in prison for our beliefs. I had no idea what was going on. They showed me a sign above the door that said “Homicide,” and that was strange to me. At the time, I still did not know that a Basij member had been killed during the Golestan 7 events.
They took me to Shapour Detention Center, which was filthy and horrifying. Everybody wore uniforms, but on their labels there were numbers instead of names. Upon arrival, they stripped me naked, ostensibly to note and catalog all injuries. I think they actually did this for mental degradation, because of the insulting way they did it. They gave me something to wear that was very dirty and was falling apart. I was in bad physical shape and that atmosphere and those clothes really bothered me. Then someone came, grabbed me by my beard, pulled a canvas bag over my head like a sack, and dragged me into a cell called “the suite.” The suite was three paces wide by five paces long. A short stone wall separated the toilet from the sitting area. Inside the cell, they put an ankle shackle on me with a heavy chain. I already had handcuffs on. They did not take these off, and I slept with handcuffs and shackles for 40 nights. Conditions there were very bad. There was no yard exercise. There was no heating or cooling. We took a shower once every two weeks. There was no medical attention whatsoever. I spent the whole time with two broken fingers, broken ribs, and having been beaten and assaulted.
After spending 40 days in the suite, they changed my cell and took me to a place they called solitary confinement. They said conditions in solitary confinement were better than the suite. Solitary cells did not have toilets, and this was much more difficult for me since I have only one kidney. I spent 30 more days in these conditions at Shapour Police Station, and after 70 days in solitary confinement I was returned to Greater Tehran Prison.
After that I spent some time imprisoned in the 4th Ward in Greater Tehran Prison, in the Darvishes Ward. This time, Revolutionary Guards from Ward 2A came for me. I was interrogated for a week at the Ward 2A (related to IRGC) and then I was returned to prison. After that, the officials housed 52 of the Darvishes among the regular prisoners in different wards who were incarcerated for offences such as robbery, rape, etc. I was taken to the 1st brigade of the prison. Over there, the conditions were very bad and inhumane. That was why some of the Darvishes and I went on a hunger strike. On the 38th day of the hunger strike, they took me back to 2A, and kept me there for almost three months of interrogations. After that I was transferred to Shapour again. In total, I spent 11 months and a few days at Shapour and Guard 2A, in solitary confinement and under interrogation. The rest of the time I was at Greater Tehran Prison. The last seven or eight months I was at Evin Prison, and I was eventually released from there.
Periods of Interrogation and Torture
During the interrogations they told me a Samand car that was now completely burned and destroyed had been used to attack a Basiji soldier. They said the attack was very similar to the bus attack on their agents.
From the very beginning, they could not agree on which institution should be in charge of my case. There was also competition between Tehran's Security Police, the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC's Intelligence Protection Unit over who could complete my execution case first. They each applied pressure to get results before the others. The family of this Basiji were close to the family of the Supreme Leader. Khamenei had gone to their home three times, and he had ordered the perpetrators to be executed, so there was a lot of pressure. In the beginning they were saying 20 people needed to be executed, so other Darvishes were also being pressured. My interrogation by the Information Ministry was very short. The following day, the police force came and took me from Greater Tehran Prison to Shapour Police Station. I was later told that shortly after the police took me, the Information Ministry had come to take me. Later on, I saw letters in my file that showed the Revolutionary Guards had written to the prison many times, asking for me to be sent to 2A, and the prison had responded that I was in the custody of the police forces.
At first they took one of the Darvishes named Hossein Askari, who also had a Samand, to Shapour Police Station. They had violently tortured him for a week. Afterwards, the torturers told me, “Now that we know it was you, we feel sorry for him.” When they found out I also had a Samand, even though the license plate of my burned car was completely different from the car involved in the murder and there was not even a single character in common, they decided to implicate me in the crime. I was a better choice for them, since I was one of the managers of Majzooban Nur and I had been active in organizing gatherings for many years. The government put extra pressure on Dr. Tabandeh through Majzooban Nur. They had also singled out Kianoosh Abbaszadeh, who was the son of Dr. Tabandeh’s personal physician. Through him and his family, they put pressure on Dr. Tabandeh. His car was not even the right model, and eventually, after 70 days of interrogation, they returned him to prison. On the last day, when they were returning him to prison, Mr. Dashtban, the court prosecutor, told him, “Go and tell Dr. Tabandeh that as long as I’m sitting here, Abbas will not see the street. I am going to get him executed.” They said since a Basiji has been killed, a Darvish has to be killed. All things considered, I was the best subject for them. All of their propaganda centered on me, and there was no escape.
I needed to confess to the murder of a Basiji. First, they said, “you ran over this person with your car.” During interrogations, they showed me pictures of his body and said, “Look what you have done!” In the picture they showed me, there were shotgun pellet marks on both sides of his body, every half centimeter. Both in the front and in the back. Eventually the Medical Examiner confirmed that the Basiji had been killed with shotgun pellets. But they still had a Hollywood scenario that as I was mowing down 180 people with my car, I was shooting with my other hand. This was completely illogical. On top of everything, this person had been shot with their own forces’ weapon. Even the commander of the police, Colonel Moslemi, who was not a good person, told me he knew this was a Basij gun.
They told me to my face that I would be executed. One time, the Head Criminal Prosecutor of Tehran, Mohammad Shahriari, told me, “I will pin all of my professional prestige on this case and I will have you sentenced to execution.” One time they contacted my wife and told her to come see me for the last time. They forcibly brought her and my baby daughter, who was a couple of months old at the time, to 2A. I was in bad shape. It was the 56th or 57th day of my hunger strike. They told me to come and see my family for the last time. I said I wouldn’t go. They viciously attacked me, beat me, and picked me up. Then they hit me in the back of my waist and threw me in a room. I saw my wife sitting there, holding my baby daughter. They told her, “He will be executed. He will get better, confess to this crime, and end his hunger strike.”
During interrogations, before the accusation had been proven, they treated me viciously. Being in solitary confinement without being beaten is a kind of torture in itself. Many people preferred to be beaten, interrogated, and harassed, rather than being locked up in a small, confined space with no one to talk to. It’s not easy to describe those pressures. The behavior was much more vicious at Shapour Police Station compared to 2A. In 2A interrogations, the interrogator knows exactly what he wants and what he needs to do. They seem to be better trained, and at the end of the day, the questions they ask should be meaningful. At Shapour Police Station, there is no question-and-answer. They torture the person so much that he will say, “Yes, it was me, just leave me alone.” At Shapour Police Station there are people who are known as ‘shoulder specialists.’ They will bring someone in, they will lay him down, they will twist his arm in the wrong direction and dislocate the shoulder. Not only is this excruciatingly painful, it also makes it hard to breathe. After that, the specialist puts the shoulder back in place with a simple movement, in less than a second, and he repeats this process. Unfortunately, they did this to my right shoulder three or four times.
I spent a total of 11 months in solitary confinement. During the beginning of this period, even though I had already sustained injuries and fractures, I was severely beaten. Whatever they said, I did not confess. I said, “I accept responsibility for whatever I have done according to my convictions and my reason, but I will not confess to something I have not done, even if you tear me into small pieces.” Then they started to threaten my family. For instance, the interrogator would say, “What will you do if your child dies?” This was at a time when I had no contact with them. When I was arrested, I only talked to my wife once for a few seconds before they cut off the call. After that, for many months, I had no idea what kind of condition my family was in; whether they were alive, or whether they were still in Iran.
In short, their reasoning [for accusing me of murder] was bizarre and did not add up at all. I think this Basiji got caught in the multiple attacks against us, was left behind, and they had shot him. Many people believe he was the driver of the bus, but I don’t know the truth of what happened.
In addition to the charge of murder, they tried to have me executed for “war on God” and “spreading corruption on Earth.” They said I had run down people with my Samand. The car they showed was completely burned, but my car was in pretty good shape, as could be seen in pictures that were published later. I explained in some detail about where my car had been parked and about who had been there. They called my wife from the interrogation room and asked her some questions. My wife replied with the same answers I had given. Then they brought another Darvish lady who was in Qarchak Prison on the line, and she confirmed everything I had said.
Around February 28, they transferred me from Shapour Police Station to Greater Tehran Prison. Before taking me to the ward, they took me to the office of Farzadi, head of the prison at the time. Dashtban, the prosecutor of the case and the interrogator from Shapour Police Station, were also there. They summoned one of the Darvishes from the ward and separately asked him questions about my car. In that office, at the same time, some agents blindfolded me and asked some random questions about Majzooban Nur; how it was funded, which organizations we were in touch with, and even questions about Israel and MI6. In short, that other prisoner had told them exactly what my wife and the female prisoner had said. They realized what I had said about the car was irrefutable, so the issue of the Samand was set aside. They still didn’t send me to the ward, and they transferred me back to Shapour Police Station.
Actually, the reason my interrogation took so long was that there was no evidence in my file. Even Judge Moqiseh, who is known as the execution judge, had been forced to ask around about my case and to send it back to the prosecutor’s office several times. The prosecutor had said, “I sent the case to him several times and he sent it back again concerning the “war on God” charge. I think he was trying to tell them to put something in the file so that he could make a decision on it. During 11 months of solitary confinement and interrogation, nothing new was added to my file. Finally, my physical condition with only one kidney deteriorated to the point that one of the interrogators at Shapour Police Station had written a letter and had said that if I died there, it would be a big problem for the police station. But the logic of these people in dealing with my case was, “The case is clear. One of you has committed murder. Even if it wasn’t you, it was your group and somebody has to pay for it.”
Interrogation about the Bus Incident
During the interrogations at Shapour Police Station, the interrogator constantly beat me over the head about the bus and asked me questions. I said, “That night there were so many drones filming above Golestan 7 Street. There are several closed circuit TV cameras in that area. Why is the video taken by a neighbor the only one being published and circulated? Is there not a single video that shows where the bus went? Why do you need to rely on hearsay?” They did not have anything to say.
One time, while Mr. Shahriari, who was the assistant prosecutor for homicide, was talking to another person, I heard someone reporting to him that, “eight people have been killed so far.” According to reports from people who were there and who were witnessing events first-hand, there were more than 15 people killed, but only three deaths were reported. Therefore, many events were not reported correctly.
For instance, the attorney for Mohammad Salas announced that, according to the medical examiner, there had been blood spilled on the bus driver’s seat, but this blood had not even been examined. He claimed that in the case of Salas, they had not even finger-printed the bus steering wheel. Every kid who has seen a crime movie or series knows to do this. A lot of people volunteered to bear witness that they had seen him when he was arrested in front of the police station, but these requests were disregarded. Regarding the reason for having a bus there, I should say that on February 4, the day of the attack of the Special Guard motorcycles at Golestan 7 street, in a meeting held to resolve this event, someone named Sardar Taheri from the Revolutionary Guards suggested we should park a bus there for people to rest, so that there would be fewer cars on the street.
The prosecutor for Salas’ case was Rahim Dashtban Farhang, who also prosecuted my case. He was a young man in his late thirties. He was the prosecutor for most of the important homicide cases, such as the murder of Najafi, mayor of Tehran, and the case of Amir Hossein Moradi (one of the protestors of November 2019). He is a key figure in the security organizations, who has not been discussed much in the media. While he was sitting with me, he would call the interrogators, and he would ask for directions as to having visitors or my transfer to Shapour or 2A. This was in spite of him being a judicial figure who could make decisions. Dashtban had talked with me a lot and he had said Salas would be executed. I told him, even if Salas is guilty, he will spend a year in prison. He answered that the Guard has so much influence in this case that they will prevent this and they will not even be able to get the complainant's approval. He had even told the son of Mr. Salas, “Please forgive us. I know your father has not done this, but I have no choice.” In the end, none of the requests from the attorneys or the witnesses for completing the file were accepted.
Court Proceedings and Issuing the Verdict
Prosecuting my case and the court proceedings took a long time. It took nearly three years until a verdict was issued; from the beginning of 2018 until the beginning of 2021. They had divided my file into two parts. One part had to do with the Security Prosecution Office and the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the other part was being tried at the Tehran Criminal Prosecutor’s Office. The file was constantly sent back and forth between different sections. At one point, I had up to 26 or 27 accusative titles. But gradually they decided not to follow up on most of them. The worst charges were “corruption on Earth” and “attempted homicide.”
The role of the Attorney in the Prosecution of My Case
I was allowed to have two attorneys. My family had chosen two people based on the reputation they had on the outside. In one of the interrogation sessions, the interrogator put a paper in front of me and said, “See? Even your attorneys know you are a criminal, you are a murderer, and that you are against the government.” The sentence he showed me on that form was that the two attorneys had said, “In pursuit of rights and justice, we will drop the defense of this person’s case.” They had both signed the form. They were my attorneys for only a few months. One of them, I never saw. The other one talked to me on the phone several times and he came to see me once after they brought me back to prison from interrogation at the Guard 2A. When I saw him, he was very perturbed. Not normal at all. So much so that I thought perhaps something had happened to my family.
He asked me repeatedly, “What did they ask about your attorney at 2A? Did they know we have talked?” He was mostly worried about his own welfare and he was very scared. Then he said, “why don’t you write a letter and ask for Islamic forgiveness and leniency?” When I said I would not write such a thing, he said, “They are going to execute you, kid!” I said, “First of all, I am not a kid. And even if they execute me, I will be proud that my name will be among a multitude of innocent people who have been executed in this country.”
In short, I never saw a written form filled out by my attorneys. I told my family that I felt this person was not very capable. My family insisted that he was a famous attorney and that he had won a lot of cases. In the beginning they had a simple view of things, but then they realized it was a security matter. Even if they had wanted to do something, it would not have made a difference in my case.
After those two people, two other attorneys took my case. One of them was a retired judge, who was a friend of ours. He told me from the very beginning to prepare myself for the worst punishment and not to expect anything from him or from the court. The other was one of the attorneys who was very active in civil rights issues and they would not even allow him to enter the prosecutor’s office. The government had many plans for my case and they wanted to create a particular atmosphere by airing the court sessions on TV. For this reason, it was very important to show the public that everything was done according to law. They had to show that I had an attorney, that there were court proceedings, and that my attorney was present at these proceedings. After three years, that is, a couple of months before my verdict was issued, I had legal representation. However, the attorneys never had access to my file and were never allowed to study it. In reality, a few minutes before the court session began, they were shown a few pages of my file and they were told to add their written defense to the file, if they had any.
Revolutionary Court and the Charge of War on God
At the Revolutionary Court, my judge was Moqiseh to begin with. Moqiseh was known as the hanging judge. He is quite irreverent and rude. My first court session was in 2019. The prison officials took me to court on Thursday instead of Wednesday. The court was closed on Thursdays. One month later, the new date for my court appearance was announced. The prison officials again took me to court one day late. They had assigned me an attorney who neither had permission to study my file, nor could he have had a meeting with me before that day. The judge’s secretary said that since the prison officials had made the mistake, the next court date would be announced one to two weeks later. The attorney went and talked to the judge. I could hear Moqiseh saying, “No, I am not going to hold a court. He should go back. We will let him know the court date.” This attorney did not understand our frame of mind either. He told me, “Please go talk to Mr. Moqiseh and beg him to release you on bail until it is time for court.” I got angry. I said, “Should I beg this person who has executed all these young people? He should beg me to have a conversation with him. Maybe I will and maybe I won’t…” It was as if Moqiseh heard us. He called his secretary. The secretary came back from the judge’s room and said, “You can go. We will send you the new court date. It might be a month from now.” A while later, the court date was given to the prison. The next date was 9 months later! Even after that, it was postponed many times. That was why, in 2019, when the circular having to do with the release of prisoners who had served one third of their sentence came out, it did not apply to me. Many Darvishes who had been sentenced to five years were released, but my sentence had not been given yet.
In due course, Moqiseh was removed from that section because of ethical violations, and a new judge arrived. I don’t remember the name of that judge. He was famous for giving sentences to substitute for long prison sentences, such as copying books, memorizing the Quran, sweeping, or washing bodies at the cemetery! I went to his courtroom one time. My file was quite thick. They said it was 3,700-3,800 pages long. All of the interrogations, court sessions, changes of verdict were included. The day I went to see this judge, it was clear that it was the first time he was seeing the file. He said, “You have even insulted the Leader?” I said, “No. This charge has been prohibited from prosecution.” He said, “Well, you have also published falsehoods.” I said, “No. That charge has also been eliminated.” He said, “Insulting the sacred…” I said, “Are you sure you are looking at my file? All of these charges have been prohibited from prosecution.” He looked through quickly and said ok. The attorney who was with me told the judge, “This gentleman is in prison right now. If it is possible, give him a verdict soon.” The judge said, “Prison is the best place. It’s a hotel.” I said, “God willing, you will be able to experience it.”
The court was called to order. First of all, during the court session I had handcuffs on, and this is against the law. I had a feeling the judge was giddy that day. He was not making sense. For instance, he asked, “Why did you come to Tehran?” Or “Why did you come to Golestan 7 Street?” I said, “I live in Tehran and going to Golestan 7 Street does not require permission or a visa. It is a public place.” Regarding the attempt to act against national security, I said, “How can I have acted against national security by being on a 40 foot wide street?” He said, “So what have you done? Why have they called me and told me to give you the harshest sentence?” The judge clearly told me that he had been contacted. He finally told me that he would hand down the sentence quickly and the court came to an end. After the court came to an end, he told his secretary, “Set bail for the people I sentenced to execution today such that they won’t be able to afford it.” Then he asked the secretary, “How many execution sentences did I give today?” The secretary said, “Five or six.” At that moment the judge smiled in such a disgusting way that I have not yet forgotten it.
True to his word, less than a week later, on February 20, 2021, the judge sentenced me to five years in prison. That was the heaviest punishment for the remaining charges. When I received the sentence, I wrote on it that I had no objections, because, as we say, in reality the Court of Appeals is the Court of Confirmation. I also wrote a harsh letter to the judge from prison and had one of my friends deliver it to him. In response, the judge had said, “Why did he not object? If he had objected, his sentence would have been decreased by several months.” Eventually, that five-year sentence was confirmed.
Criminal Court and the Murder Charge
They bothered me a lot over that criminal case in which I was charged with murder. The murder charge was changed to accessory to murder, and then again to aiding and abetting murder, and finally was prohibited from prosecution. Mohammad Shahriari said these changes were made so that they could hold me for a longer period. While according to the law, they can’t hold you in temporary arrest without charges for more than two months, I spent 11 months in solitary confinement. This is why they kept fiddling around with my charges.
Eventually, I was tried for charges like carrying firearms and knives, disrupting the order, destruction of property, beating and injuring officials, disobeying officials, and another silly charge: initiating a murder! These charges were tried by a judge named Hadi Pashafar in Criminal Court. In the end, there was no evidence against me other than that I had been at Golestan 7 Street.
The court convened on April 27, 2020. Security was very tight. They brought me from the prison several hours late and took me inside through a back door. The floor on which my courtroom was located had been completely evacuated. There were plainclothes people all over the place. Among all of my friends and acquaintances, only my wife had been able to get in, but even she was not allowed into the courtroom. Outside the courtroom, my interrogator had told my wife, “We are going to skin him alive.” My wife had responded, “You can’t even skin a tangerine.” The atmosphere was so tense and secure that even the judge seemed to be scared. On the way back, they took me to prison in a personal vehicle, because my friends were waiting to see me when I came out of the court building.
At the beginning of my prosecution, I had almost 180 private plaintiffs who had said I had beaten and assaulted them. I said, “I weigh 75 kilograms. Even if they tied up the arms and legs of these people and lined them up, I would get so tired by the time I got to the 30th person that I wouldn’t be able to beat up the rest.” Eventually their numbers decreased to five. They said they had been injured by a Samand car, but each one of them had told a different story. One person said the Samand driver came to the right side of the road, and another said he drove up the road. The inconsistencies in their testimonies were ridiculous. They were both plaintiffs and witnesses at the same time. They were not qualified to be witnesses since they were all employed by, and therefore members of, the organization who was the complainant. These five people came to court. One of them was a member of the Mohammad Rasul Allah Corps, one was the representative of the police force, and one was from the Shapour Police Station. The judge asked them about their employment. One said, “I was a Basiji and I became a permanent member of the Revolutionary Guards after the Golestan 7 Street event.” One by one they described where they worked. The judge said, “I am also Basiji.” That was the only time one of my attorneys was able to say something. He said, “Please don’t keep saying ‘I am Basiji, I am Basiji.’ I was also at the front and fought for my country for two years and I am a soldier.” It was indeed an effective pronouncement.
The people in the courtroom started to speak in order. In their remarks, they insulted me and my beliefs, and they even threatened me. Every time I objected, the judge would admonish me and he would say, “No, don’t speak. At the end, I will give you time to defend yourself on all points.” My attorneys only tried to calm me down. Even the Basijis said at one point, “Judge, we don’t care about the sentence you will hand down. We know what to do. We don’t care about the court.” The judge just sat there. The poor guy had no power. They were all Basiji at the time of Golestan 7. In the courtroom, the judge asked about their employment. Four of them said they were Basiji, but after Golestan 7, we became permanent members of the Revolutionary Guards. These Basijis and the Basiji who had been killed at Golestan 7 were all members of Cheezar Hossaynieh (religious gathering hall) in Tehran. This is the same Hossaynieh frequented by the famous religious chant leader Mahmoud Karimi, who is close to the family of Khamenei, and also frequented by many of the extremist plainclothes people who have influence everywhere and who orchestrate many altercations that happen on the streets.
When it was my turn to speak, it was exactly 2:25 PM. The judge said I didn’t have much time. I was supposed to be able to talk for three or four minutes at the end of the session. I said, “This case is built on erroneous evidence and the reasons for my acquittal are plain. According to the written evidence provided by the witnesses in this case, the person they described has long hair and wore gym clothes. My picture is available from that day. I had neither long hair, nor was I wearing gym clothes.” I had just started to speak, and it had not even been two minutes, when a Basiji youth said from behind me, “Your honor, time is up.” I turned around, laughed, and said, “Are you presiding in this court?” The judge admonished me again and said the time of the court is over. Afterwards, these same people gathered around the judge, laughing and telling stories, while they sent me out of the courtroom.
In this court they charged me with disobeying the police and disrupting the order. There was also another silly charge of “initiating first degree murder.” I asked everybody the meaning of initiating first degree murder. How can you start to murder somebody? They said, “The fact that you put your wife and child in the car and went towards Golestan 7 Street with the intent to commit murder is considered ‘starting to murder.’” I said, “More than a thousand people were at Golestan 7 Street and 450 people went to prison. How come I am the only one who is charged with this?” They said, “You intended to come and commit murder.” I said, “How did you detect my intention? This one charge is enough for the whole judicial system of Iran.”
From the beginning, all of their efforts were concentrated on the death sentence. Even I thought this case would culminate in my execution. On May 6, the Criminal Court handed down their sentence. In the end, they combined both of my cases, and because the most severe sentence for each case was five years (according to the law of compounding punishment), they gave me five years in prison.
Later on, when I saw the printed copy of the sentence in prison, I found out that I had been sentenced for five more years, without realizing it. In fact, without my knowledge, another case had gone through all the stages of interrogation, prosecution, and court proceedings, and had reached the point of communication and execution of the sentence. In the prison system, my sentence was recorded as ‘5 years prison, from 2017 until 2022, and another 5 years that would start in January 2023.’ The prison administrators didn’t know what was going on either. It even said that this new case had been initiated in the Shahryar Prosecutor’s Office, while, in all my life, I had driven through Shahryar maybe once. In fact, up until the day I was released, I was never sure if I would really be released or if I would have to stay in prison for another five years. They also calculated blood money for the plaintiffs I had supposedly injured with my car, and a few days before I was released they made me pay an amount for blood money.
Threats and Pressure on Family Members
During the time I was under arrest, my family, and particularly my wife, were under pressure. My young son had been threatened with death and my wife had been threatened to be raped. They had taken our phones from my car and they sent obscene messages to our friends and family members through our Telegram accounts. Especially during the time that I was in solitary confinement and had no contact with them, they had treated my wife in such a way that she would not stay home alone. They came to search our home many times. One time they contacted my wife and told her if she wasn’t home in 20 minutes, they would break the door and go in. My wife had immediately gone home with great difficulty. Armed agents came in and searched everywhere. My wife said they even searched the sugar bowl several times. They put so much pressure on our landlords that my wife was obliged to move several times. I think their only goal was to put pressure on my family. Since beating, assaulting, and the like had not had much of an effect on me, they went to work on my family. They wanted my wife to write a testimony saying that I was one of the managers of the Majzooban Nur site.
There was even something that I found out about after I had been released. They had shown my elderly parents a video of me being interrogated and tortured so that I would cooperate for their sake. One of my brothers is a judge at the Administrative Court of Justice. They had taken him to 2A several times. He was under a lot of pressure and scrutiny because of me. Even when I was about to be released, they had frightened my family so much that they thought I might be killed by a sniper right when I was released. They had said, “Some people are building a case against him on the inside, and some are waiting for him on the outside.”
After Release and Continuation of Threats
Eventually the case was legally resolved, but as far as the family of the murdered Basiji and the plainclothes people were concerned, it will never be resolved. The people who are following my case are the family of a Basiji, and they are close to the family of the Supreme Leader. Ever since I was in prison, they have said many times that they didn’t care about the court’s verdict. Five years in prison and all the damage to my person was not enough for them. I didn't even have an ordinary incarceration. I was always under pressure and harassment. Immediately after I was released, they started mudslinging on social media, saying this “essence of corruption” has been freed. They tweeted that they would get revenge and they sent obscene messages to me and my family. On Telegram channels amongst themselves, they threatened to kill me. A short while later, the threats turned into vocal and physical altercations. All of this led me to leave Tehran and take up residence in another town, but these persecutions continued. People with unknown numbers constantly call me. One time while I was riding my motorbike on the street, they hit me on the forehead with brass knuckles and caused severe bleeding. I was lucky it didn’t hit my eyes. Unfortunately, these threats were not just focused on me. My son had not gone to school since I’d been released. I had to be vigilant all the time, in case my family and I were attacked with knives or rocks. After enduring these pressures and threats, I was obliged to leave Iran with my family, and I am now residing in Germany.
Some friends believe all of this was done in order to shut down the Darvish website. This site has been a big help for minorities, and especially for Darvishes. Unfortunately, their efforts were successful and the site was closed down under the circumstances. The Haddadian family became an excuse for the Darvishes’ spiritual gathering hall to remain closed. They have not been able to launch a site and gather the Darvishes together.