A Memorial University grad disappeared in Iran. His friends in N.L. fear he’s been arrested | 24CA News
An aged man, dressed from head to toe in black, sits immobile on an ornate rug in the midst of his lounge.
His shoulders are slumped, and he seems misplaced as he stares on the disarray round him.
Furniture is toppled over. Cushions, pillows, and blankets are strewn throughout the ground.
A clock on the wall reads 6:35 a.m.
This was the scene Ayub Khezrnejad found when he walked into his father’s home in Bukan, Iran, within the early morning of Nov. 19.
There are few particulars about what occurred that morning, past what Khezrnejad describes in a quick 45-second video he captured on his smartphone.
“They invaded at 5:30 a.m. and took Muhammad Khezrnejad and his oldest son, Yaser. And this is our house’s condition,” he stated in Farsi.
The man on the rug is Khezrnejad’s father. Muhammad Khezrnejad is his brother, and Yaser, his nephew.
Ayub Khezrnejad, a graduate of Memorial University, uploaded this video of the mess left in his father’s dwelling in Iran after Islamic safety forces raided the home on November nineteenth. Shortly after, Ayub was detained by Iranian officers.
The “they” Khezrnejad is referring to within the video is believed to be the Islamic Republic’s safety forces. It’s not clear why they raided his father’s dwelling or detained his brother and nephew.
Khezrnejad isn’t seen within the video, however his voice will be heard describing what occurred.
“When I listened to it, I did recognize Ayub’s voice and I was shocked,” his good friend stated in an interview with 24CA News in St. John’s.
CBC isn’t naming the good friend as a result of potential hazard to his household in Iran.
“I hadn’t spoken to Ayub a lot in the past couple of years. I had never seen Ayub speaking this way. The feeling in his voice … stressed, frustrated, shocked.”
Khezrnejad posted the video on-line, and shortly after was summoned by the Iranian judiciary for questioning, in keeping with social media posts made by native media and group members.
The posts say he hasn’t been seen since.
St John’s Morning Show16:02MUN grad believed to be detained in Iran
A Memorial University Grad hasn’t been seen in virtually 2 weeks, after allegedly being detained by Iranian safety forces. We converse along with his good friend and considered one of his professors
An opportunity assembly in Newfoundland
Despite each being from Iran, Khezrnejad and his good friend did not cross paths till an opportunity assembly in 2013 at Memorial University in St. John’s, 1000’s of kilometres away from their dwelling nation.
“We used to have coffee times together. We used to have chats, like normal daily conversations,” his good friend remembered fondly.
“He was a normal guy. We used to go to the gym together sometimes. After a year, we knew each other a little more, we used to get together to play card games on the weekends.”
Khezrnejad was finishing his grasp’s diploma in engineering at Memorial, the place he was researching enhanced oil restoration, a serious curiosity for these seeking to maximize the extraction of Newfoundland and Labrador’s profitable offshore oil reserves.
“He did exceptionally well in his courses. But he was motivated. He was interested. He liked to be in the lab and explore and really try to understand how we could use the nanoparticles [in oil recovery],” stated Lesley James, a professor of course of engineering and Khezrnejad’s grasp’s supervisor.
In addition to him being a gifted researcher and devoted pupil, she remembers his light nature.
“Ayub was kind, unassuming. Just very respectful and gracious.”
News of Khezrnejad’s arrest
Khezrnejad accomplished his grasp’s program within the fall of 2015 and returned dwelling to Iran in early 2017.
According to his good friend, Khezrnejad enrolled in his obligatory navy service — a requirement for all males over 18 in Iran — by working at Sharif University, a substitute for precise service within the armed forces for these with larger training credentials.
When they final spoke in 2019, Khezrnejad was doing properly.
“He was OK with the work,” his good friend stated. “Maybe he was complaining a little bit about the income because he was just basically doing something for the military service. It’s a very, very low income — you could say no income.”
Although they’d misplaced contact over the previous couple of years, they nonetheless shared some buddies and acquaintances.
So when a mutual good friend despatched him a textual content message informing him Khezrnejad had been detained in Iran, he was shocked.
“I couldn’t believe that,” he stated. “Ayub was probably the first one that I knew directly who was arrested by the security forces or who was directly affected by this situation in Iran.”
James was equally bowled over by the news.
“Disbelief,” she stated. “But disbelief that it could be someone that I knew, that I taught. It’s always, you hear these situations and it seems so far removed. But when it’s someone you knew for several years and worked closely with, it’s devastating.”
Ayub’s detainment within the huge image
Being arrested for posting a 45-second video on-line may seem to be an virtually unbelievable overreach of energy.
But Khezrnejad’s good friend places the position of the Islamic safety forces and the Iranian judiciary in perspective.
“Those are the institutional organizations that have authorities higher than the normal police and they get direct orders from the Ministry of Intelligence, based on my understanding. And if they see any sort of behaviour from you, they might call you forward and ask you questions,” he stated.
“I think that’s what happened to Ayub. They called him to get him present, and that’s when they arrested him.”
His arrest comes at a time of nice civil unrest in Iran.
Protests and requires the removing of the present Iranian authorities have been ongoing all through the nation because the demise of Mahsa Amini in September, after she was detained by the Iranian Guidance Patrol, also called the morality police, for allegedly not correctly sporting a hijab.
Those demonstrations have been met with more and more brutal responses from the government-controlled Iranian safety forces. Various human rights teams say between 400 and 500 Iranian civilians have been killed since mid-September, and as many as 18,000 individuals have been arrested.
So with the continued unrest, and with detainment seeming to be all however inevitable, it is sensible to ask why Khezrnejad would have even confirmed as much as the judiciary summons.
“When he was summoned by the judiciary, I think he knew it was because of the recording and he probably knew he might get arrested,” his good friend stated.
“But he still went there and showed up to follow up on the situation with his family. I would have expected him to go and show up based on his braveness.”
And whereas no one has heard an replace from Khezrnejad since he confirmed as much as his summons, his good friend hopes this will probably be another instance of why individuals exterior of Iran want to talk up for these nonetheless dwelling in his dwelling nation.
“I think what Iranian people need from the outside, from the other countries, and especially the leaders of other countries, the big players, they need others to be their voice,” he stated.
“They want to be heard.”
