Omid Memarian
o.memarian@roozonline.com
Rahim Baniyaghoob is Zahra Baniyaghoob’s brother. She died under suspicious circumstances in the offices of the Moral Police in Hamedan on October 13, 2007. He told Rooz that he will never accept the official statement that his sister committed suicide. Read on for the interview:
Rooz (R ): What have you learned through your investigation?
Rahim Baniyaghoob (RB): They have not given me any specific replies. They have not even identified the specific court date - that is if there is going to be a trial.
R: In an earlier interview you said that you were in telephone contact with your sister minutes before she died and that she did not display any signs that she was suicidal. Has this point been considered in the investigation?
RB: Yes, we have expressed this point. But regardless of this, how could someone have prepared the means to commit suicide in such a short time, implement her idea and get results? It is absolutely not possible.
R: Do you have access to the witnesses and exhibits of the case?
RB: Last time they did not give the photographs to the defense attorneys. But they will probably give them such access later. Still, there are a number of ambiguities in the case. We have the telephone records for the past two months. And even though one of the personnel has said that, “At a particular time, I took her so that she could talk to her brother,” my phone records do not show any telephone conversation. This is one ambiguity. It is as if this telephone conversation never took place.
R: What else?
RB: They showed us a shoe print and said that Zahra stepped on to that chair to hang herself. But this seems meaningless (impossible) considering her condition. Because when Zahra’s body was found, she was not wearing any shoes. Later, the authorities said that they had made a mistake and that the shoe prints did not belong to Zahra but were somebody else’s. We asked for the scene to be recreated to see if it was even possible to hang in a room with 1.5 meters in height. How can something happen in these cells without others knowing about it? Who can believe such a thing.
R: Did they accept to recreate the scene?
RB: No. We asked different people, and they all said no.
R: What did you do when you heard that the defenders had been released on the small bail of 1 million Toman (about $150,000)?
RB: What can I say. We went to some senior officials and requested that the case be transferred from Hamedan to Tehran because we felt that there were cover-ups and manipulations of the case, and because we had little access to anybody in Hamedan.
R: What do you mean by manipulations?
RB: The head of Hamedan’s Morals Police is a powerful person who still holds his job. He is strong and probably has many connections. But can he really not do anything to remove the ambiguities of the case? I think he can easily do it.
R: What do the defense attorneys say?
RB: They too say that if the case remains in Hamedan, nothing will change. We even wrote to the head of the judiciary, Mr. Shahrudi about this and await his response.
R: What is your next step?
RB: We are trying our utmost to bring the case to Tehran which is a neutral forum. Otherwise, there is nothing else we can do. The other side is very powerful. What else can I say.
R: How is your family? Their morale?
RB: My mother is under the supervision of a psychologist. She is under severe pressure. Her blood pressures is very high.
R: How do you think this even took place?
RB: Zahra was fine a few minutes before the event. We had a regular conversation over the phone and I told her that my dad would be soon coming to resolve the issue. I think there was a verbal exchange after that, particularly because there was blood from her nose and ears, which has not been recorded in the file.
R: This does not seem to match the hanging story ..
RB: Yes. There are of course other discrepancies too. I am afraid that if I mention those too, they will simply justify them the next day. I am afraid mentioning them will actually create more problems.
R: How so?
RB: They will wash it away. There are many ambiguities in the file and I prefer to keep them there until we go to court.
R: In view of what you have already experienced, what are the changes that the truth will come out of all this?
RB: What can I say. We have faith in God. We must be optimistic. I don’t really know.
R: Were you emotionally close to your sister?
RB: Very, very close. We were the only brother and sister. We were extremely close.
R: Is this idea of suicide compatible with her personality?
RB: When I last spoke with her, there was absolutely, absolutely no such thing in her mood. When the last words in a conversation are ‘dear brother’ and ‘dear sister’, which was normal, how could anyone think that she was getting ready for such a thing (i.e. suicide). I will not accept this until my death. There is zero possibility for such a thing.
R: What kind of a person was she?
RB: She was a top student in most of her classes. And while she could have selected the special university program and gone to a more convenient school because her father was a political prisoner during the monarchy, she chose not to utilize this option and in fact went to the most deprived places. Places that do not even exist on the Iranian map. Her passion was to say that she was serving people. In the village where she served, because some people could not go to the clinic, she went to them to take care of them. She viewed such gestures as her human duty. Her colleagues said that her clothes were always dusty. They have many stories about her. She had a wonderful spirit.
R: What do you think about the fact that this event took place at a place called the Morals Office?
RB: When we have a police force in the country, why must these individuals act in such capacity, and end up with such situations? I could never believe that something like this could happen to my sister. I never thought that a person’s life could be so easily played with.
