Mahboubeh Ramezani, the mother of fallen protester Pejman Gholipour, said that security agencies had warned her family over their seeking justice for their son.
Mahboubeh Ramezani wrote on her Instagram account: “After several times that (the security services) called my husband and I but we did not respond, they called my son. They told him to be careful. ‘If your family continues to do what they are doing, worse incidents will be awaiting them.’ My son told them, ‘My parents seek justice for their son.’ (The security services) replied, ‘Their son was an offender, and we killed him! Tell your parents to come here, or we will come and transfer them to jail.”
Reacting to the threats, Mahboubeh Ramezani reiterated, “The chests of all the families (of the victims of the November 2019 uprising) are ready for your bullets. Your threats, imprisonment, and torture are no longer effective. We will make you remorse. We will make you regret every single life you took over all these years.”
Since she lost her son in November 2019, Mrs. Ramezani has consistently sought justice for her 18-year-old son, Pejman Qolipour, 18, who died after being shot in the heart by security forces during Iran protests in 2019 in Andisheh, Tehran province.
Mahboubeh Ramezani has been repeatedly targeted for harassment and intimidation in reprisal for her activities including public calls for justice and accountability for her son’s death.
On 18 November 2021, security forces arrested and temporarily detained her in relation to a commemoration event in the village of Malat, Gilan province, where her son is buried, to mark the second anniversary of his death. On the day of the memorial, security forces descended onto the village in large numbers, closed the roads in and out of the village, arrested a number of relatives and mourners, and confiscated their mobile phones. Mahboubeh Ramezani and several other family members were also briefly detained.
Mahboubeh Ramezani’s call for justice
In May 2021, Mahboubeh Ramezani revealed in a video clip published virtually how the regime stalled her son’s murder investigation. “When I was looking for the camera above my child, I said, ‘Sir, show me this camera to find out who killed my child?’ After eleven months, they brought me a fake letter that the municipality had said that the camera had burned out on the 17th (of November) when my child was shot!”
In one of her pleas to the public, she said, “Help me seek justice for my son. Help me stay on the path of seeking justice for my son. I promised Pejman to be his voice in every breath. Be our voice. Be the mothers’ voice. We don’t want anything else from you. Just be our voice. This is the only thing we need.”
Mrs. Ramezani spoke at the Iran Atrocities Tribunal on November 10, 2021, via recorded video, surrounded by decorations to mark her son’s 20th birthday.
“We want justice. Hear our cries,” she said. “Tell us who killed our children. … We lost our loved ones in our own homeland.”
Ramazani’s camera panned to a neatly made bed: “My son’s empty bed that I see every day,” she said. Then black pants hanging from a door: “Clothes of Pejman I hanged here, in case he returns one day.” A red box crossed with white ribbon: “My son’s bloody clothes are in that box. They’d removed them in the hospital. There were holes in them.”
