ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian security forces shot and killed a protester this week as he was painting an antigovernment graffiti on a wall in the Kurdish city of Kermanshah, a rights watchdog said on Saturday.
Ardalan Ghasemi, 48, was painting graffiti on a wall in the Taq-e Bostan area of the city with a friend on Thursday when security forces showered them with bullets, wounding both.
“Three bullets hit him, one in the shoulder, one in his kidney and another in his groin,” a source close to the family told Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) on Saturday. “The officers took him to Talaqani hospital while he was bleeding but did not allow for an operation to be carried out on him instantly and he died a few hours later from severe bleeding.” The second person was hit in the lower back and is in critical condition in hospital.
It is not clear how the security forces found the two individuals late at night, but the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have boasted about using drones to monitor the streets of metropolitan areas in Iran to identify protesters.
Anti-government protests continued in several locations across Iran including Tehran, Shiraz, Arak, and in the Kurdish areas (Rojhelat). In the village of Boyuran in the Kurdish city of Sardasht, people protested after the security forces killed a resident of the village on Friday. Angry protesters set a vehicle of the border guards on fire and burnt down a station belonging to the Basij militia, part of the IRGC.
At least 63 protesters have been killed in the Kurdish areas while the total number across the country stands at 336, including 52 children, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Over 15,000 people have been arrested with several tortured to death by agents of the ministry of intelligence and the intelligence of the IRGC, the two main spy agencies in Iran.
Tehran has blamed the west and regional foes such as Saudi Arabia and Israel of being behind the protest with the IRGC chief threatening to retaliate against the enemies.
The foreign ministry reacted strongly to the meeting on Saturday between French President Emanuel Macron and Iranian dissident activist and journalist Masih Alinejad along three other women’s rights activists, including a young woman from Kermanshah whose mother was killed by security forces during the protests. “This meeting was a clear violation of France’s international responsibility in fighting terrorism and violence seeking and this is considered as promoting these two phenomenons. “
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Saturday that she is worried about two more French citizens who have been identified as being detained in Iran bringing the number to seven.
Ghassemi was from the town of Gilanegharb in Kermanshah province and his family was forced to sign an undertaking that he was killed while stealing a vehicle. “The security forces have charged the family 16 million toman [$500] in order to hand over the body to them,” the source close to the family added.
