Iranian parliament to investigate killing of 12-year-old boy

Aug 4, 2009, 22:08 GMT

Tehran - The Iranian parliament is to investigate the causes which led to the killing of a 12-year-old boy in recent protest demonstrations in Tehran, the daily Etemad Melli reported in its Wednesday edition.

The 12-year-old Ali-Reza - last name not mentioned- was killed last Thursday in the Beheshte Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran, where a mourning ceremony for the victims of the recent protests turned political and led to police interference and eventually clashes.

Etemad Melli quoted parliament deputy Hamid-Reza Katouzian as saying that the killing of Ali-Reza would definitely be investigated in the parliament.

Katouzian is member of the so-called Fact-Finding Committee formed by the parliament to investigate the killings of the recent demonstrations and the situation of the political prisoners.

More than 20 people were killed in the recent protest demonstrations against alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election which led to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. More than 1,000 critics were arrested, over 100 are still in jail.

Etemad Melli, which is also a moderate political party headed by Mehdi Karroubi, reported that Ali-Reza had gone with his father to the cemetery for the mourning ceremony but lost touch with him in the crowd.

According to the newspaper report, he was hit on the head by a baton and probably died of cerebral haemorrhage. His parents received his body four days later (Sunday) from the coroner office.

The daily further reported that Tehran prosecutor Saeid Mortazavi met on Tuesday with the parliament's judiciary commission and the Fact-Finding Committee.

In the three-hour meeting, some of the pro-Ahmadinejad deputies called on the prosecutor to order the arrest of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi on charges of provoking what the MPs called illegal unrests, Etemad Melli said.

The report added that the same MPs also called on prohibiting former reformist president Mohammad Khatami to leave the country following rumours that he would seek asylum in an European country.

There have been unconfirmed reports that the moderate cleric and initiator of the Dialogue Among Civilizations project might seek asylum in Switzerland.

Since the post-election protest movements, Khatami, Moussavi, Karroubi and ex-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani have turned into the country's main opposition quartet.

The four have not yet acknowledged the re-election of President Ahmadinejad, who will be sworn in on Wednesday morning in the Iranian parliament and officially start his second four-year presidential term.