The lawyer for the family of blogger Sattar Beheshti, who died while in custody, has called for the lawsuit filed by Beheshti’s family to be fast-tracked.
Giti Pourfazel told SINA on Saturday January 19: “According to the investigator of the file, the last coroner’s report indicates that Sattar Beheshti did not die from natural causes.”
Sattar Beheshti was arrested on October 30 at his home for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic, insulting the values of the regime and colluding against national security”, and five days later he was pronounced dead while in the custody of the cyber police.
A parliamentary probe into the death of the blogger, which triggered a public outcry, reported this month that the final cause of death cannot be determined exactly, according to the coroner’s report.
The parliamentary commission said: “Since the autopsy and the complimentary investigations did not reveal any sickness that could have led to the death, the most probable cause of death could be shock.”
Giti Pourfazel emphasized that the probe’s conclusions are arguable, stressing that the delays in bringing the case to court are unreasonable.
“The case was filed close to three months ago and it remains in the judiciary, while the file of suspects referred to as thugs and hoodlums was processed within a month,” Pourfazel said.
Pourfazel explained her insistence that the file reach the courts quickly: she is not allowed to see it until it passes this first stage and is forwarded to court.
She went on to say that the investigator in the case has promised to forward the case to court by mid-February.
Earlier parliamentary reports in November revealed that seven individuals have been put under arrest in connection with Beheshti’s death, with bail for some of them set at 500 million rials.
Pourfazel said: “It has been established who Beheshti’s interrogators were and in the case it is clear that there were four people, and the main perpetrator, the one whose blows and beatings led to the death, has also been determined.”
Pourfazel confirmed that a suit was filed by Beheshti’s mother but the defendants got an “invalid consent” from her to drop the charges.
She added, however, that she has filed a suit on behalf of the victim’s father in order to avoid possible complications that might arise from the first attempt by Beheshti’s mother.
