A screenshot of a photo posted by Manoucher Bakhtiari of him and Pouya, on Instagram. — A screenshot of a photo posted by Manoucher Bakhtiari of him and his son Pouya, on Instagram.

An Iranian court recently sentenced Manoucher Bakhtiari, the father of a young Iranian man killed during the bloody crackdown on protesters in November 2019, to three and a half years in prison and two and a half years in exile on unclear charges, according to reporting by the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Iranian security forces have arrested Bakhtiari several times since the death of his son.

Bakhtiari’s son, Pouya Bakhtiari, 27, was fatally shot in the head in November 2019 in Karaj, Alborz Province. Pouya had participated in protests in which security forces used excessive and unnecessary lethal force on protesters. Many victims of the violence died from gunshots to the head or chest.

The authorities arrested several members of the Bakhtiari family, including Manoucher, in December 2019 after they called for public mourning for Pouya’s death. A week after the arrest, Gholamhossein Esmaili, the judiciary’s spokesperson, said that the family members were accused of “acting against national security.” Authorities held Manoucher for two months before releasing him pending trial. Authorities rearrested him in July 2020, shortly after he made a public plea to the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the security forces’ use of violence on protesters. In December 2020, Manoucher posted on his Instagram account that his brother Mehrdad Bakhtiari, Pouya’s uncle, received a five-year suspended sentence on broad national security charges.

Instead of investigating the serious violations security forces committed during the brutal crackdown against protesters in November 2019, it appears that the Iranian authorities are using their old tactic of prosecuting those who are seeking truth and justice.