Mother thanks Iranians for trying to save son’s life

Iran Focus: Kermanshah, Iran, May 21 – Daye Saltaneh, mother of Farzad Kamangar, the young teacher who was hanged with four other Kurdish activists on 9 May in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on the charge of acting against state security, in a message thanked all those who worked to try to save her son’s life.

Iran Focus

Kermanshah, Iran, May 21 – Daye Saltaneh, mother of Farzad Kamangar, the young teacher who was hanged with four other Kurdish activists on 9 May in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on the charge of acting against state security, in a message thanked all those who worked to try to save her son’s life.

Ms. Saltaneh said: “You can on my behalf thank all organisations, groups, and dignified and freedom-loving individuals all over the world who worked, protested and wrote letters to save Farzad’s life and who expressed sympathy and condolences after he was hanged. I know how hard all of you worked”.

“I expect all of you to continue in Farzad’s path. Now, I have thousands of children. I said time and again that Farzad was not my child only. He belonged to all Iranians. He was a child of all those families who have lost their loved ones. It makes no difference. Finally, Farzad was like a flower which I offered to all freedom-loving people of Iran”.

The other four dissidents executed on 9 May were Shirin Alam-Houli, Ali Heydarian, Mehdi Islamian, and Farhad Vakili.

In the town of Kamyaran, where Mr. Kamangar was a teacher for 12 years, hundreds took to the streets to condemn the execution.

Mr. Kamangar’s lawyer, Khalil Bahramian, told Deutche Welle radio that his client had been sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court during a five-minute trial and denied the due process of law.

Iran observers note that the dramatic hike in the number of hangings reflects growing anxiety among officials over a week of anti-government protests that Iran’s main organised opposition has called for beginning 10 June.