Iranian border guards have shot dead Madeh Kermani, a 44-year-old kolbar and father of two, at close range in the border areas of Marivan, Kurdistan Province.
Kermani was carrying no goods when he was shot in the head. His family found his body in a morgue two days after he went missing.
An informed source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN): “Madeh Kermani, born in 1981, was a father of two from the village of Kheyrabad who lived in Marivan. He worked as a kolbar. On 28 July, as usual, he left home intending to go to the border and headed towards the Maraneh border area of Marivan.”
The source said: “After his telephone had been switched off for several hours, his family became concerned and went to the Bashmaq border crossing to find out what had happened to him. When they asked a soldier about him, the soldier said that a kolbar had fallen from the border heights and died and that his body had been taken to the morgue in Marivan.”
The source added: “Although he had his bank and fuel cards with him, neither the border guards nor the Legal Medicine Organisation contacted his family. After 48 hours, the family found his body in the morgue. According to people who saw his body and the Legal Medicine Organisation, he was killed instantly after being shot in the head. His body was handed over to his family on 30 July and buried in his home village.”
Figures compiled by KHRN show that, over the past four weeks, Iranian border guards have shot dead five kolbars in the border areas of Nowsud, Marivan and Sarvabad, as well as two other civilians, including an 11-year-old child, in the border areas of Sarvabad and Khoy.
