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Iran: Suspect Arrested in Killing of Female Dissident Protester

by Michael Lipin

   Iran's judiciary said it has detained a suspect in the killing of
   33-year-old dissident Maryam Faraji, who went missing earlier this
   month after facing charges for participating in anti-government
   protests.

   In a report published Sunday, the judiciary's news agency Mizan quoted
   a prosecutor in the town of Fardis, near Tehran, as saying authorities
   arrested a former fiance of the dissident a few days earlier.

   Prosecutor Hassan Jahanshahlu said Faraji's body had been found buried
   in a garden owned by the sister of the ex-fiance. He said the man
   confessed to killing Faraji when faced with "evidence" of his
   involvement. The prosecutor also said Faraji's body had been
   transferred to a medical examiner's office.

   The Mizan report did not name the suspect or say in what city the body
   was found. It also did not specify when and how Faraji was killed.

   Faraji's lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghassi, had told VOA Persian last
   week he feared Faraji had been killed after she went missing on July 5.

   In a Sunday tweet, Aghassi confirmed that Faraji's body had been found
   in the garden of the suspect's sister and that the suspect had
   confessed. He also called for an investigation to determine the motive
   for the killing and to answer unspecified questions that had been
   raised by Faraji's family members.

   Faraji, a graduate student of management and a financial officer of a
   private company in Tehran, had been arrested in early January for
   taking part in weeklong anti-government protests that swept Iran at the
   time, mostly outside the capital. Authorities charged her with illegal
   assembly and harming national security, and sentenced her in April to
   three years in prison, with a two-year ban on leaving the country.

   Faraji had been freed on bail, awaiting the outcome of an appeal, when
   she disappeared.

   This report was produced in collaboration with [1]VOA's Persian
   Service.

   Michael covers international news for VOA on the web, radio and TV,
   specializing in the Middle East and East Asia Pacific. Follow him on
   Twitter [2]@Michael_Lipin

References

   1. https://ir.voanews.com/
   2. https://twitter.com/Michael_Lipin