Physics professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed in a bomb attack in Tehran today. Iran’s state TV described him as “a committed and revolutionary” professor, suggesting he supported Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s government. Iran has accused the U.S. and Israel of being involved in his assassination.
In an interview with Radio Farda, one of Ali-Mohammadi’s students, who did not want to be identified, says that Ali-Mohammadi was a supporter of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and the Green Movement: “He accompanied his students in post-election rallies, including the Qods Day and Student Day demonstrations,” he says.
A Radio Farda Web site viewer asks, “How come the authorities can so quickly point a finger of blame at the U.S. and Israel, yet cannot identify those who raided a Tehran University dorm or those who killed the nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi?”
Ex-Prosecutor Blamed For Protesters’ Death
A report by Iranian parliamentary investigators, made public on Jan. 10, holds the former Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi responsible for the deaths, in custody, of three protesters in July 2009.
Religious scholar Mohammad Javad Akbarin tells Radio Farda that blaming Mortazavi is a safety valve aimed at controlling people’s protests. He says the Iranian regime tried to suppress the Green Movement by calling it “sedition” and attributing it to the U.S., U.K. and Israel, but now it has to admit responsibility after seven months of demonstrations.