The mother of Sattar Beheshti, the blogger who died five days after his arrest by Tehran Cyber Police, says the Ministry of Intelligence has made their lawyer, Giti Pourfazel, sign a pledge never to speak about the Beheshti case with the media.
Gohar Eshghi, the mother of the deceased blogger, has filed a suit against the authorities, demanding that the perpetrators of her son’s death be tried in court.
Eshghi told Saham News that their lawyer, Pourfazel, has courageously fought for their case and for that she is now being forced to remain silent.
Pourfazel has been very vocal about the judiciary’s delays in this case. The coroner finally released a report saying that although Beheshti’s body showed signs of torture and beating, his death was not due to those blows. The report claims his death must have been due to psychological pressure.
Pourfazel was then quoted as saying that even if psychological pressure caused the death, his interrogators have to be held responsible for it.
Gohar Eshghi told Saham News: “Even if they silence our lawyer, they cannot silence the voice of a mourning mother. I am Sattar’s mother and I fear nothing.”
Eshghi added that political prisoner Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has sent her a message from inside Evin Prison that he is prepared to testify in court about “what happened to Sattar under detention.”
Ronaghi Maleki is a prominent political prisoner who was arrested after the election protests of 2009 for running a popular blog critical of government policies.
