New testimony reveals: Iranian regime opponent was brutally murdered
On the night of the great massacre of protesters in Iran, Farid Ramezani was murdered. Security forces identified a tattoo of the Shah on him, shot him at close range, and mutilated his body. A photojournalist who documented the protests and attacks in Iran was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The Iranian opposition has revealed harrowing testimony regarding the murder of a protester in January. According to the report, 29-year-old Farid Ramezani was shot to death on January 8 in the Ariashahr neighborhood of Tehran, during a night of intense crackdown by Iranian security forces against anti-regime protesters.
According to the testimony, security forces first shot Ramezani in the back. After he was wounded, they identified a tattoo of the Pahlavi crown on his right hand—a symbol of the Iranian monarchy that preceded the Islamic Republic. In an attempt to mutilate the tattoo, they shot his hand before firing a fatal shot to his forehead at close range.
The testimony also sheds light on the suffering of his family; it is claimed that authorities withheld his body for approximately two weeks after the murder. His family members were forced to pay for the three bullets used to kill him before the authorities agreed to release the body. Furthermore, the family was forbidden from burying him in Tehran, leading them to inter him in the Hashjin district of Khalkhal, in northwestern Iran.
15-year sentence for documenting protests
In a separate case illustrating the regime's pressure on journalists, renowned photojournalist Yalda Moaiery has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Moaiery has dedicated much of her career to documenting protests, resistance to the regime, and the struggles of women in the country.
The sentence was imposed under a law enacted following the military conflict between Israel and Iran. Authorities accuse her of giving interviews to media outlets deemed hostile and transferring photos to organizations linked to the United States and Israel. Moaiery reported that during raids on her home, intelligence personnel from the Revolutionary Guards confiscated all her equipment, including cameras she had owned since childhood.
Despite the history of arrests and interrogations, Moaiery remains defiant: "None of these punishments ever made me abandon my path, not even for a moment. The regime took everything from me, and the only thing I still have left is the truth and my honesty as an observer."
