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Alert

Another missing Iranian writer dead under suspicious circumstances

(HRW/IFEX) - Human Rights Watch has urged the Iranian government to
investigate the recent death of an Iranian writer under suspicious
circumstances.





**Updates IFEX alerts of 9 December, 8 December, 7 December and 27 November
1998**

The body of Iranian poet, writer, and free expression advocate Mohammad
Makhtari was found on 9 December 1998 in a Tehran city morgue, Human Rights
Watch said. Marks on his head and neck made it appear that he had been
murdered, possibly by strangulation, although no autopsy has yet been
carried out.

This was the most recent of a series of deaths under suspicious
circumstances of prominent critics of the Iranian government. Makhtari, who
had last been seen alive on 3 December, going to a local shop, was briefly
arrested with five other writers in October. The four were threatened with
being charged with organising "an underground political group" if they did
not stop holding informal gatherings of writers.

Morgue workers reported the presence of Makhtari's body to his family just
two weeks after the body of another prominent writer and political critic,
Majid Sharif, was found dumped there on 24 November, after "disappearing" on
20 November. Sharif's articles criticising government polices appeared in a
monthly magazine, "Irane Farda" (Iran's Tomorrow), which was closed down by
court order just three days ago.

In an open letter sent on 25 November to Iran's President, Hojatoleslam
Mohammad Khatami, Human Rights Watch expressed its shock about the killing
by unknown assailants of opposition figures Darioush and Parvaneh Forouhar,
in their Tehran home on Sunday, 22 November, 1998.

"These killings are part of an increasingly sinister pattern of harassment
and persecution of government critics in Iran," said Hanny Megally,
executive director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human
Rights Watch. The killings have continued despite President Khatami's
public statements encouraging freedom of expression and his calls for
investigations into the murders.

"The killing of these writers and opposition figures are reaching crisis
proportions," said Megally. He urged the Iranian government to initiate an
immediate and through investigation into this and other killings and make
the findings public.