Mohammad Damavand Mirzaei, a 45-year-old Kurdish tradesman from Kamyaran, Kurdistan Province, who was injured a few days ago on the Karaj-Tehran highway after being shot by the anti-smuggling unit of the Iranian police, has died in a Tehran medical centre.
Mirzaei, a father of two, was injured on 15 December when officers from the anti-smuggling unit chased and fired at him on the Karaj-Tehran highway. He suffered serious injuries after being hit by three bullets and died on 17 December despite medical intervention.
This is the second fatal police shooting of Kurdish tradesmen and civilians in the past week. On the evening of 15 December, Soheyb Ahmadi, a 20-year-old from Javanrud in Kermanshah Province, was shot dead by police on a street in the city.
Research by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) shows that every year several Kurdish civilians and tradesmen are shot dead on inter-urban roads by the Iranian police’s anti-smuggling unit under the pretext of transporting foreign goods such as fabrics, cigarettes and cosmetics. However, efforts by the victims’ families to seek justice in military courts have so far proved fruitless.
