Son's Death Has Iranian Family Asking Why
Wall Street Journal
23-Jun-2009 (8 comments)

 The family, clad in black, stood at the curb of the road sobbing. A middle-aged mother slapped her cheeks, letting out piercing wails. The father, a frail man who worked as a doorman at a clinic in central Tehran, wept quietly with his head bowed.Minutes before, an ambulance had arrived from Tehran's morgue carrying the body of their only son, 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour....Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.

Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn't amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is  family.

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rosie is roxy is roshan

IRI: Pay us $3000 for murdering your son

by rosie is roxy is roshan on Tue Jun 23, 2009 02:38 PM PDT

Most of the article is a 'human interest story' about a family tragedy. Only at the end comes the part about the (rather hefty) 'bullet fee', which is now  circulating widely through the press as an independent item.

Well,obviously it's not a bullet fee. There's no such thing as designer bullets.  It's a damn good idea for a detterant to get people to stop protesting.You die, your family will pay for it. and as you know, we can shoot you for doing absolutely nothing, so better to sit the protests out What strikes me as so strange though is why have we only heard of one isolated case of this? I hardly think the Journal would make it up..it's too..bizarre to make up.



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capt_ayhab

Rosie

by capt_ayhab on Wed Jun 24, 2009 07:20 AM PDT

No argument about it, what I am saying is that they have the ugly history of doing it and I would not be a bit surprised if they have started it again.

These monsters and capable of every genocidal thing one can imagine. If you notice and talk to people of my age who were in Iran during early to mid years of revolution, everyone will tell you that this was their common practice.

 

 

-YT for NEDA Daughter of IRAN


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mahmoudg

leftover practice from the beginnig of the revolution

by mahmoudg on Tue Jun 23, 2009 09:48 PM PDT

This is Islamic 9th century law.  They did this to all the family members of those they murdered at the beginnig of the revolution.  They asked my aunt for huge some of money when he and a relative went to claim the body of her ex-husband brigadier general Saeed Mehdiyoun, of the Imperial Iranian Airforce.  I am sure thousands have stories like this to tell.  I wrote an article about Genreral Mehdiyoun a few years back on this site.


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Mort Gilani

No Shame whatsoever, They Are Just Beyond It.

by Mort Gilani on Tue Jun 23, 2009 08:54 PM PDT

Asking for bullet money is so ghoulish that defies the imagination of any soul, but it was a norm for political cases certainly up to 1989.  Resurfacing this in a broad daylight indicates that the Islamic Republic is prepared to use all ghastly tools to intimidate the opponents.


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Natalia Alvarado-Alvarez

Unbelievable...if true then it is so inhumane

by Natalia Alvarado-Alvarez on Tue Jun 23, 2009 05:35 PM PDT

not to allow family to grieve their child and untop of it charge them for killing their child

ناتاليا


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Mehrban

Makhoof

by Mehrban on Tue Jun 23, 2009 04:33 PM PDT

is the only word I can think of. 


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rosie is roxy is roshan

Ayhab,the ONLY thing that I find bizarre about it-

by rosie is roxy is roshan on Tue Jun 23, 2009 04:13 PM PDT

is that we've only heard one isolated case. Other than that it sounds perfectly normal to me.

And it's not an old issue either. And needless to say the author of the article is Iranian, so she WOULD be one of the last remaining journalists there, because as long as she watches her back, she's basically incognito.


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capt_ayhab

Rosie

by capt_ayhab on Tue Jun 23, 2009 03:52 PM PDT

This is old tactic by IR. They used it in previous killing back in late 80's and early 90's and even earlier in the akhund mutiny. They even did not back then allow families to bury them in regular cemeteries. They had set aside special section without any tombstone and name. Total barbaric.

I am not sure though if this is an old issue the WSJ is re-circulating or that IR has started doing it. Since I read this article I have been trying to verify it with my Family and friends in Iran.

 

-YT for NEDA Daughter of IRAN


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