“In Mahshahr, the situation was different from other regions,” the exclusive report of the Islamic Republic Radio and Television (IRIB), titled “reflections on the project of pretend-dead in recent incidents in the hostile media,” began with this sentence which aired on December 2, 2019. At the time, the regime media sought to justify a crime that later became known as the “Neyzar (marshes) Massacre” or the “Mahshahr Massacre.”
Those days, IRIB had changed its use to an intelligence agency more than ever. The Internet was just reconnected in parts of Iran after a week of complete shutdown. Citizens reports and images of what had happened in different parts of Iran during the days of the November 2019 nationwide protests were making their way to social media. Meanwhile, the “Mahshahr massacre” exposed the dimensions of brutality and violence used by the regime in suppressing the protests in a “different” way. A few days after airing this charade, Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, a member of the presidium of the Islamic Republic “parliament,” officially confirmed the “large number of people killed” in Mahshahr and justified the “massacre.”
But before the regime was forced to make such confessions about the intensity of repression and killings, the team of interrogator-reporter Ali Rezvani was busy. On November 29, 2019, Rezvani interviewed Najmeh Chakpour-Kheirabadi, wife of Reza Sayadi, a member of the Special Unit (anti-riot), who according to state media reports was killed in Mahshahr on November 18, 2019, in the program “Without Compliments.” In this program, Rezvani produces the scenario of Reza Sayadi’s death from his wife’s narration. As he nods his head in approval, he asks: “Then, oh, you heard; did they tell you, how did he become a martyr?” Najmeh replies: “he and his colleagues were shot in the back.” Rezvani: “Where did the bullet hit him?” Najmeh: “His chin and his lungs, his arteries were ruptured with heavy bleeding. He was kneeling (in praying prostration) and he became a martyr when he had ablution (cleansing before prayer).”
In kneeling position, bullet from behind, place where the bullet hit: chin and lungs! It’s not without reasons that why the interrogator-reporter insist on Sayadi’s wife’s narration. Less than a month after the release of this “different confession”, on December 23, 2019, the Valiasr branch of IRGC in Khuzestan announced that the “IRGC Intelligence Organization” of the province has arrested several people in connection with the “Mahshahr incidents”. In the same statement, it was mentioned that the people arrested by the IRGC Intelligence have already “confessed.” And this was how the state media, just two days after the statement release, on December 25, 2019, broadcasted one of the most terrible “confessions produced by torture” and full of contradictions:
We see that the interrogators in this product have exactly reproduced the scene that Rezvani had made from kneeling and Sayadi prayers a few weeks ago. In one scene, the police do not shoot; They went to the slaughterhouse to offer congregational prayers. Two gunmen, both armed, fired at them. In another scene, the two who are brothers, tell the police that the police officers were no longer praying, but were walking behind people. People… he does not know where the people have gone! These two brothers, however, do not have two guns, contrary to what the first person said. One of them is armed! The volume of ambiguities and contradictions in these confessions and scenes is enormous.
Everything is “different” in Mahshahr. Abbas and his brother Mohsen Deris are both detainees of the bloody November protests. According to HRANA, human rights activists news agency, the two brothers are currently being held in Mahshahr prison. Abbas Deris was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh, disorderly conduct and accessory in the murder of a Special Unit officer (Reza Sayadi). His brother, Mohsen Deris, was also sentenced to life in prison for accessory in the murder. HRANA quoting a source close to Deris family, writes: “Everything is informal and undocumented. But the serious problem is that in an area like south of Khuzestan and on issues like what these two brothers are accused, these unofficial statements can be true. The statements of court or prison officials cannot be ignored; The fact that the judiciary does not cooperate with the accused and his family or even his lawyer adds to our concerns.”
No one knows the exact status of the two brothers’ case. None of Mr. Deris’ “first and second” lawyers have access to his case. No written order has been issued to either the family or the lawyers during the two years. What is not “different” about Abbas Deris is that he is from Abadan, has two children and according to another version three, was born in 1973. When the war broke out (between Iran and Iraq in the 80s), he migrated to Chamran town. His brother Mohsen is no different from other Iranian brothers. Mohsen was born in 1992 and has a child named Haidar. Abbas and his brother Mohsen Deris are both Iranians.
Translation of this post by Sahar.
