In an interview with Radio Farda, daughter of a detained Gonabadi dervish has confirmed his father’s death behind bars.

“The police forces have announced that my father went into coma after being hit and later died,” Tayyebeh Raji told Radio Farda on Sunday, March 4.

According to Ms. Raji, her dervish father, Mohammad Raji, was seriously battered and in a critical condition when arrested on Tuesday, February 20. The family was allowed to see him in detention.

“My father moved his hand, but, we do not know what happened to him afterward since they never gave us a chance to see him again.” Said Ms. Raji.

The bereaved daughter also noted, “If my father had really gone into coma, we were entitled to immediately be informed and allowed to visit him; that’s the least right a citizen expects to be respected by the authorities.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Raji lamented that her father’s body has not been delivered to his relatives, yet.

Earlier, a website covering dervish related news, Majzooban Nour (Enchanted by Light) had reported that Mohammad Raji died in Police custody while being beaten up under interrogation.

Nevertheless, Tehran’s Public and Revolutionary Court Prosecutor-General, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi confirmed on Sunday that one of the detained dervishes has died in custody, but he denied that he died under interrogation.

Reportedly, Mohammad Raji was a former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and an Iran-Iraq war veteran who was suffering from an Iraqi chemical attack.

According to Majzooban Nour, Raji left IRGC in 2005 and looked after a farm in the village of “Mazra’eh Abad” near Aligoudarz in Lorestan Province, western Iran.

Furthermore, Tayyebeh Raji told Radio Farda that his 22-year old brother who had gone to look after his father, a victim of chemical attack, was also detained in Pasdaran avenue, the scene of recent clashes between dervishes and police forces supported by plainclothesmen.