The information about Mr. Reza Ta’i, son of Aziz, has been drawn from an article by Mr. Hamed Knani, published on the Akhbar Rooz website on November 19, 2009. Iran News Agency reported this event on November 16, 2009, but referred to the victim as “Reza Mahavandi.” Mr. Ta’i resided in Ahvaz. He was a 22 year old university student.

According to information available, on November 13, 2009, Mr. Ta’i was driving his car on a highway in Ahvaz when he reached a checkpoint. He stopped the car and got out. A police officer shot him from close range and killed him.

Iran News Agency reported that after the shooting, security agents patrolled the neighborhood where Mr. Ta’i lived, in order to prevent “provocation of people’s feelings” and “politicizing” his death.

The reason for the shooting is not known. Mr. Knani only refers to a broadcasting company’s interview with Mr. Ta’i’s father. A few months prior to Mr. Ta’i’s death, an interview with his father was televised in a program covering the unrest following the contested presidential election of 2009. The interview took place in an underprivileged neighborhood in Ahvaz. Mr. Ta’i’s father was wearing clothing traditional of the Arab minority. “The interviewer asked, ‘what is your message for the authorities?’ The old man… said, ‘I ask the government of the Islamic Republic to reflect on our youth, [and the] disadvantaged [status] and unemployment in the Arab community. I ask them to look after our children.”

Background

Election returns from Iran’s June 12^th, 2009, presidential election declared Mahmud Ahmadinejad to have been re-elected with 62.63 percent of the vote. Following the announcement, citizens disputing these official results demonstrated in the streets. Text messaging services had been disrupted since 11:00 p.m. on the night before the election and remained unavailable until July 1^st. On Election Day, the deputy chief of Iranian police announced a ban on any gathering of presidential candidates’ supporters throughout the country. On the same evening, security forces made a “show of strength,” increasing their presence in Tehran’s public squares to “reinforce security at polling stations.” At election headquarters, the head official began reporting results soon after midnight, despite a statement from the Interior Minister that the first returns would not be announced until after the morning prayer (around 4:00 a.m.).

Many supporters of other presidential candidates came out into the streets on June 13th, once the results had been made public, to protest what they believed to be a fraudulent election. Candidates Musavi, Karubi, and Reza’i, Ahmadinejad’s competitors in the race, contested the election, alleging many instances of fraud. They filed complaints with the Council of Guardians [the constitutional body charged with vetting candidates before elections take place and approving the results afterwards], requesting an annulment and calling for a new election. Before the Council of Guardians could review their claims, however, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election. In the meantime, many people who had been active in Karubi’s and Musavi’s campaigns were arrested.

On June 15^th, unprecedented demonstrations were held on the streets of central Tehran, in which an estimated three million protestors participated, according to statements attributed to the mayor of Tehran. As the demonstrations were ending, paramilitary forces attacked the marchers, injuring and killing several people. To prevent such news from being broadcast, the Iranian government expelled foreign journalists from the country and banned news agencies from reporting on the events. Over the next three days, protesters took part in peaceful demonstrations in Tehran. After Ayatollah Khamenei’s Friday sermon on June 19^th, which Amnesty International said gave “legitimacy to police brutality,” the repression entered a new phase. The next day and thereafter, police and plainclothes paramilitary groups confronted the protesters, resulting in casualties. Public gatherings of any kind were declared illegal, and police and plainclothes agents brutally enforced this restriction.

Paramilitary plainclothes groups are used in Iran to disrupt political and trade union activities, student events and gatherings, electoral initiatives, and protests. There is little information on the command structure and organization of such groups, whose members wear ordinary clothing rather than official uniforms. Armed with sticks and clubs, and sometimes with chains, knives, batons, or firearms, they emerge when the state decides to suppress dissent. Police forces either passively observe their conduct and do not react, or they may actively cooperate with the plainclothes forces, who move freely about, violently beating protesters, including when the police are present.

Following the post-election demonstrations of June 2009, pictures of some plainclothes agents were posted on internet websites. Internet users helped to identify some of them and provided evidence that these individuals were affiliated with the Basij paramilitary groups, the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and state intelligence forces. On September 16^th, 2009, a deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps of Tehran Province confirmed the active and decisive role of Basij forces in the repression of the demonstrations, saying, “Basijis, through their presence in recent events, have blinded the eyes of the conspirators, and they should be appreciated. … The enemies of Islam wanted to make the air dusty and to exploit the recent events, but Thank God, through the enlightenment of the Honorable Leader we were victorious against this conspiracy.” He also emphasized, “The zealous youth of Basij, believers in the Guardianship of the Jurisprudent, are the second and third generations of the Revolution. They have been successful on this stage and victorious on this battlefield.”

When personal property was damaged during the protests, government authorities and state-run radio and television programs accused the demonstrators of vandalism and justified the repression. At the same time, however, footage posted on-line showed security forces destroying and damaging property on side streets and in uncongested areas away from the protests. Moreover, in a public gathering of Tehran police commanders on October 20^th, the chief of Iranian police conceded that police had destroyed and damaged property and accepted responsibility for it.

The precise number of citizens injured, killed, or disappeared in the post-election violence is not known. According to various reports, there were hundreds of victims in demonstrations throughout the country. More than seventy names have been reported. It is said that officials have threatened victims’ family members, demanding their silence and that they not agree to be interviewed. Reports also allege that returning a victim’s body to a family has been made conditional upon their agreement to change the cause of death listed on the coroner’s certificate to that of a heart attack, or some other natural cause — thus foregoing the right to file a complaint — as well as an agreement not to hold memorial services for the loved one.

According to government statements, more than 4,000 people have been arrested throughout Iran since June 12^th, many of whom have been held at the Kahrizak Detention Center, where prisoners’ rights and minimum hygiene standards are typically not observed. Numerous reports of violence, including the torture and rape of detainees, have been published. According to state reports, some of the detainees at Kahrizak died in custody.