The grieving husband of a woman killed after the Iran military shot down a Ukranian airliner fled the country, outlets reported on Monday, citing threats from officials warning him not to speak about the tragedy.
Javad Soleimani Meimandi, a marketing Ph.D. student at the Alberta School of Business in Canada, alleged Ministry of Intelligence officials threatened him for “insulting” members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who attended his wife’s funeral, as well as writing critical posts on social media.
His wife, Elnaz Nabiyi, 31, was among the 176 passengers and crew who were killed after members of the IRGC accidentally shot down Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 on January 8, days following the assassination of Iranian terror chief Qassem Soleimani (no relation) and heightened military tensions with the United States.
The IRGC is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
Meimandi was particularly angered by the presence of local IRGC commanders and representatives of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei at his wife’s funeral, describing them as “shameless” after Tehran’s initial insistence that they did not fire the missiles that took out the aircraft.
“On the day of the funeral, I received a message telling me to shut my mouth, and that this is my first and last warning,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
The footage i've got from a source – the moment the missile hit the #Flight752. I can't verify the video yet! but please let me know if you find anything. I'm in contact with the person who send this video to see if I can get a version of video which has a meta data on it pic.twitter.com/HtesW5uecB
— Nariman (@NarimanGharib) January 9, 2020
He added that he was summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence the following day after “insulting” officials. “I was then forced to quickly leave the country so I can be a voice for the victims of this tragedy,” he explained. “We hope that one day we will have a responsible government in Iran that is worth the lives of the people.”
In another post, Meimandi also expressed his sadness at the fact that his wife was an opponent of the Iranian regime and was ultimately killed by those within it. He also accused Iranian authorities of “controlling the tone” of her funeral.
“It is very difficult to know that your loved ones hated what they stood for and then they hit her plane with a rocket and go on to completely control the expression of the funeral while forcing you to keep quiet.”
He later called on the international community to maintain pressure on Iran to hold the regime accountable and demand transparency over the incident.
“The truth should be clear about the plane crash. Unfortunately, the Iranian government will not cooperate, but hopefully, the domestic and international community will not give up until all the causes of the incident are fully clarified. “
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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