Iran senior mullah focus of controversy over murder

Iran Focus: Tehran, May 31 – New information has come to light on
the shooting in cold blood of a 20-year-old man by a senior official of Iran’s paramilitary police, the State Security Forces, at an
underground railway station in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran.
The murder, witnessed by hundreds of rush-hour commuters,
sparked clashes between angry protesters and security forces in several neighbourhoods of Karaj. Iran Focus

Tehran, May 31 – New information has come to light on the shooting in cold blood of a 20-year-old man by a senior official of Iran’s paramilitary police, the State Security Forces, at an underground railway station in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran. The murder, witnessed by hundreds of rush-hour commuters, sparked clashes between angry protesters and security forces in several neighbourhoods of Karaj.

Hojjatol-Islam Asgar Najafi, who shot Ali Amini-Tehrani in the head at point blank at a crowded Pol-e Fardis Metro station late Wednesday evening, was a mullah serving as the SSF Deputy Commandant for Islamic Indoctrination and political and social affairs.

Eye-witnesses later described how Najafi ordered the young man to accompany him to the police station for “lewd behaviour”. When the young man refused, Najafi pulled out his gun, placed it on the back of the man’s neck, and fired.

As a large crowd gathered around the young man’s body lying in a pool of blood and angry shouts of “murderer, murderer” rose, security agents at the scene formed a protective ring around Najafi and led him to safety outside the station, where he was whisked away in a patrol car.

In the following days, the clerical regime’s authorities made a concerted effort to blame the victim, making claims that he was a drug addict or a member of a drug smuggling ring. Amini-Tehrani’s mother, who denies the accusations as a cover-up, has refused to allow the corpse to be buried, insisting that a full autopsy must first be conducted to prove that the allegations are false.

Facing public outrage over the cold-blooded murder, the authorities have decided to have Najafi tried by the Special Court for the Clergy, an extra-judicial body that exclusively deals with wrongdoings by mullahs. The SCC metes out extremely lenient sentences, such as defrocking of a cleric convicted of murder.

The incident has not died down since Wednesday when a crowd, infuriated by the murder and the impunity of the murderer, attacked vehicles belonging to the security forces outside the station.

Student protests have been met with paramilitary police reaction, with many of the student protesters in Karaj Free University being beaten up with truncheons. Clashes between young protesters and security forces continued for several hours in different parts of the city.