Slain Iranian Protester’s Activist Father Detained by Iran for 2nd Week Following Rearrest

An Iranian father who became an outspoken critic of Iran’s Islamist rulers after their security forces killed his son in nationwide antigovernment protests last November has begun a second week in the custody of authorities, who rearrested him in response to his ongoing activism.    Iranian security agents arrested Manouchehr Bakhtiari on July 13 at the airport of Iran’s Kish Island as he and his wife Saeedeh (Sara) Abbasi were finishing a visit to Kish in the country’s south and preparing to board a north-bound flight to their home in Tehran, according to family members who spoke to Western-based media outlets. They said Abbasi also was detained for several hours before being released and allowed to fly to Tehran on her own.  Speaking to VOA Persian from Tehran on Monday, Manouchehr Bakhtiari’s brother Mehrdad said Manouchehr’s detention had stretched into a second week.اهل ایرانم . اهل دادم . دشمن بیدادم . دادخواه ام . دادخواه پوبا ها و نداها . دادخواه تمامی جانباختگانی که در طول ۴۱ سال توسط مزدوران جمهوری اسلامی به قتل رسیدند . دادخواه خلیج فارس . دادخواه منافع ملی ایران . دادخواه وجب به وجب خاک ایران #پویابختیاری #پویابختیاریراهتادامهدارد #جانباختهراهمیهن #منهمپسرکسیهستم #منوچهربختیاری #ایلبختیاری #قوملر #خوزستان #غیزانیه #کردستان #کولبرانکورد #مهردادبختیاری #آبان۹۸ #هواپیمایاوکراینی #ناوچهکنارک #جانمفدایایران #حمایتمردمازمنوچهربختیاری #پرچمایران #ملت #پرچم #نداآقاسلطان #خلیجفارس @mehrdadbakhtiyari68 @m__bakhtyari @pouya_veg @sfbkhtyry9 @dadkhahi___ @parchameshirokhorshidiranA post shared by manouchehr bakhtyari (@m__bakhtyari) on Jul 11, 2020 at 9:04pm PDTIn one of several mobile phone videos that he posted on his Instagram account from a Kish shoreline on July 12, Manouchehr Bakhtiari held up a flag of Iran predating its 1979 Islamic Revolution and said he seeks justice for all those killed by the nation’s Islamist rulers, as well as justice for Iranian territory, as he put it. In another video, he accused those rulers of trying to sell out that territory to China.  In the weeks before his Kish visit, Bakhtiari had made other public statements criticizing the Iranian government. View this post on Instagramاز تبار بی بی مریم و سردار اسعد . صلح دوست و جان می دهم برای آزادی وطن . من اهل ایران ام . اهل دادم . دشمن بیدادم دادخواه ام . دادخواه ملت ایران #پویابختیاری #اشکانسهرابی #پویابختیاریراهتادامهدارد #جانباختهراهمیهن #منهمپسرکسیهستم #منوچهربختیاری #ایلبختیاری #قوملر #خوزستان #غیزانیه #کردستان #کولبرانکورد #مهردادبختیاری #آبان۹۸ #هواپیمایاوکراینی #ناوچهکنارک #پایندهایران #جانمفدایایران #حمایتمردمازمنوچهربختیاری #پرچمایران #ملت #پرچم @mehrdadbakhtiyari68 @m__bakhtyari @pouya_veg @sfbkhtyry9 @dadkhahi___ @parchameshirokhorshidiranA post shared by manouchehr bakhtyari (@m__bakhtyari) on Jun 22, 2020 at 1:42pm PDTIn a June 22 Instagram video, Bakhtiari disavowed images, published by Iranian state media earlier in the month, appearing to show him honoring top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a January 3 U.S. airstrike on Baghdad. One such image, seen by VOA Persian, showed Bakhtiari holding up a poster of a smiling Soleimani.  In the Instagram video, Bakhtiari said Iranian authorities had forced him to hold the poster at a memorial for Soleimani in the days after the U.S. attack, while Bakhtiari was still in his first period of detention. He accused the government of trying to fool Iranians by circulating the images and also denounced Soleimani as a mercenary.  Bakhtiari kept up the pressure on Iran’s government by writing to U.N. human rights officials to urge them to establish a commission to investigate what he called Tehran’s “lethal repression” of the November 2019 protests. The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) posted Bakhtiari’s letter online on June 28.“Iran’s regime is trying to silence Manouchehr,” Mehrdad Bakhtiari told VOA Persian.  The activism of Manouchehr Bakhtiari and his family and the Iranian government’s attempts to suppress it have captured the attention of the Trump administration. In a March 11 speech unveiling the annual U.S. report on international human rights practices, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Bakhtiari family was “living in fear under house arrest.” “I want great Iranians like the Bakhtiaris to know America remembers those lost and stands for their freedom,” Pompeo said.  This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. 
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