Negar Mojtahedi
Canadian Iranian journalist and documentary filmmaker'

Iran International

A US court has issued a temporary order against Ramezan Soltan-Mohammadi, an employee of the Iran's Interests Section in Washington DC, who was seen threatening Iranian protesters to death last week.

In a video posted to social media, the man is seen making a death gesture according to one of the demonstrators in attendance, Siamak Aram, who said the man in the video directed the death gesture right at him.

"He threatened me with death by moving his hand across his throat to indicate he would cut my throat," said Aram.

The video was taken on May 22 at a rally outside a memorial service hosted by the Islamic Education Center (IEC) in Maryland for the "occasion of the martyrdom" of President Ebrahim Raisi and Iran's late foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who both died in a helicopter crash last week. The center posted "condolences and sympathies" notes on their deaths.

Aram was an activist in Iran who fled in 2011, seeking to escape the Islamic Republic, yet this week's incident he said, proved the arm of Iran's repression extends all the way to the United States.

"I didn't expect to feel the same experience I had in Iran, here in United States. It was...15 miles away from White House and the capital," he said.

The man, later identified by Aram as Soltan-Mohammadi, allegedly is an employee of the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is part of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington DC, which is the de facto consular representation of Iran in the US.

Iran International has reached out to Soltan-Mohammadi for comment but has not heard back.

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) told Iran International "the fact that he was an employee of the Islamic Republic's Interests Section raises tremendous concerns for me."

"The Islamic Republic has a very checkered past of trying to engage in transnational repression in Western capitals," said Brodsky >>>