Mother of Iranian post-election victim appeals to international bodies

International Campaign for Human Rights - Neda Agha-Soltan

Hajar Rostami, mother of Iranian post-election victim Neda Agha-Soltan, appealed to international human rights organizations and tribunals to identify the murderer of her daughter.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran website reports that the mother of the young woman who was shot to death in Tehran during last summer’s street protests against election fraud has announced that her efforts in identifying the murderer of her daughter have failed.

Hajar Rostami exclaims: “I have nothing to tell the government. I have kept silent all this while; now, I just want the world to hear my appeal and find Neda’s murderer.”

She adds that Iranian authorities have treated her with respect; however she also says that “there has been an extensive effort to distort the truth about her daughter’s death.”

She listed the films aired on Islamic Republic television, statements made by authorities and leading clerics and Ezatollah Zarghami, head of Iran’s national broadcasting, Seda va Sima as clear instances of there efforts in distortion of her daughter’s life and death.

Hajar Rostami says: :So far they have made three films. Each time they have contradicted their last statements. But I am Neda’s mother and I know, she had gone out to join the street protests and was killed by their forces.”

She adds that these programs are only “to say that we have a free country…but no one believes these lies; not the people of Iran, or the people of the world.”

In terms of why she did not file an official complaint against these programs, she said: “When in plain daylight, they shot and killed Neda, I complained and it was useless. How could I complain about the films? To whom could I complain?”

Rostami maintains that the government authorities had informed her that they are making a film about her daughter and had told her: “We did not kill Neda and in this film we want to say who killed her.”

She claims they told her that the film aired on Iranian television which portrays Neda as a suicide victim was not their production and this time they were going to reveal Neda’s murderer, who “happens to be a woman.”

Hajar Rostami says: “With these films, they have simply destroyed their own reputation.”

Mother of Neda Agha-Soltan also added that authorities pressured her into participating in a television interview and says: “I said I know the murderer of Neda and for that very reason I will never come on your Seda va Sima…The Seda va Sima which is run by Ezatollah Zarghami who said that Neda was an actor and those expressions in her eyes were just part of her acting. I will never appear on this Seda va Sima.”

Hajar Rostami says that she has contacted the International Campaign for Human Rights in hopes of appealing to world organizations and the Hague Tribunal to assist her in identifying the murderer of her child.

Neda Agha-Soltan, a 23-year-old woman, was shot to death on June 20, 2009 in the street protests against the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year and so far no one has claimed responsibility for her death.

Islamic Republic national broadcasting and several government officials have given different accounts of her death, in the months following her murder.