Op-Ed: Who Killed Neda Soltan?

According to Iran's police chief, Neda Soltan's death was staged by Western agents and requested that Interpol arrest Dr. Arash Hejazi, who treated Neda onscene and has since fled Iran for his life. Yet somebody in Iran has knowledge of who killed Neda.

Who killed Neda Soltan? According to all of the protesters at the scene of Neda's shooting death in Tehran on June 20th, it was an armed basiji on a motorcycle. According to Iran's chief of police, it was the protesters themselves, or Western agents-provocateur, who shot Neda for propaganda reasons to make the authorities look bad. High on the suspect list of the regime in that case is Arash Hejazi, the doctor who tried to save Neda's life. Dr. Hejazi is now in Britain, having fled Iran for his life once the video of Neda went viral. Highly visible in that recorded history, Dr. Hejazi thought he'd become a prime target of the regime. Rightfully so, it appears. Iran claims they've submitted an Interpol warrant for Dr. Hejazi's arrest, but Interpol denies it. The above embedded video is from the BBC interview with Dr. Hejazi, not long after his arrival in Britain. Yet these words from Dr. Hejazi, as in many other reports on Neda's death at the time, provide tantalizing clues as to whom Neda's real killer is.

"Dr Hejazi said he first thought the gunshot had come from a rooftop, but later he saw protesters grab an armed man on a motorcycle.

"People shouted 'we got him, we got him'. They disarmed him and took out his identity card which showed he was a Basij member. People were furious and he was shouting, 'I didn't want to kill her'. People didn't know what do to do with him so they let him go.

"But they took his identity card. There are people there who know who he is. Some people were also taking photos of him."

Whoever those 'some people' are in Iran, now would be a good time for them to provide those identity papers or photos to the Western press. The blame for Neda's death should lay squarely with her killers. Putting this information out now is the only way to counter the slanders the Iranian regime is now spewing against not only Neda, but the entire green movement as a whole. Lies can only be fought with the truth. So if any of you have any contacts in Iran, now would be a good time to use them. Needless to say, the regime's official request for Dr. Hejazi's return should be held in contempt. I would even go so far as to have the British provide security for the good doctor if they aren't already. He remains a primary witness to a murder. Allowing Iranian agents to snatch Dr. Hejazi in Britain and return him to Iran to 'confess the truth' of Neda's death, as Newsweek's Maziar Bahari was recently forced to confess his work as provocation on behalf of Western agents, is just too depressing a scenario to think about.