Gity Pourfazel said: “When I asked the man accused of killing Satar to explain the reason behind his violent and unlawful behavior toward the late blogger, he simply begged beheshti’s family to grant him pardon,” the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) reported.
Beheshti, 35 was arrested at his home on late October by Tehran’s cybercrimes Police unit (FATA) for what they said were taking actions against national security of the country on social networks and Facebook. He died in detention under unexplained circumstances.
On November 6, authorities announced Beheshti’s family to pick up his body. He reportedly had died three days earlier. The first official domestic reaction to the event came on November 11 when Iran's Majlis (Parliament) declared that it would probe the circumstances of the blogger's death.
Later on the same day, Iran's judiciary also announced it would investigate the issue. Two days later, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran’s Prosecutor-General told reporters that Beheshti's case will be sent to the courts for consideration in about 10 days.
After investigations by the Majlis (Parliament) and Iran’s judiciary into the mysterious death of Sattar Beheshti, Tehran’s FATA chief, Gen. Saeed Shokrian was dismissed by Iran’s national police chief, Ismael Ahmadi-Moqaddam who said: “Tehran’s FATA should be held responsible for the death of Sattar Beheshti.” He however ruled out torture as a cause of the blogger’s death.
Pourfazel remarked that despite the fact that the accused has been identified, the case has not been referred to the court where she said: “I would be able to study the documents and organize my defense. Moreover there are ambiguities over the death of Sattar Beheshti which will not be removed before studying the papers.”
“According to his family, after the death of Beheshti some agents from FATA called his mother asking her to sign a written consent at an office of a notary public, otherwise the family will face new problems,” she added.
“Such a written consent has no legal validity since at that time the murderer had not been identified. Unfortunately despite my insistence, I was not allowed to see the consent and the investigator of the case told me that due to the written consent you can’t follow the case before retrieving that,” Pourfazel said.
The attorney of Beheshti family stressed that the official letter attributed to the late blogger was written by his own hand and was not forged. Addressing the head of the prison, Beheshti wrote that he was arrested by FATA and took the cyber police responsible for whatever happens to him. The head of the prison later said he received the letter late.
“The detainees from Ward 350 of Tehran's Evin prison, where Beheshti was reportedly held for one night, also issued a letter confirming that bruising was visible on the late blogger's body," she added.
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