Murdered Iranian woman's killer identified

Tehran, Aug.20 (ANI): The man accused of killing Iranian woman protester Neda Soltan during an opposition rally against the June 20 presidential result, has been identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, a pro-government militiaman.

The identification challenges the Iranian regime's claim that foreign agents shot the young woman, who became a global symbol of resistance to the Government of President Ahmadinejad.

One picture appears on Javid's Basij identification card, which was taken off him by the crowd that stopped him briefly when he fled the murder scene during a massive demonstration against electoral fraud on June 20.

Photographs of that card and another that was issued by the Interior Ministry have been posted on the Internet, and the doctor who tried to save Soltan as she lay dying on a Tehran pavement has confirmed that they show the man who was stopped, reports The Times.

"I can testify for certain that it is the same person," Dr. Arash Hejazi told The Times.

Dr Hejazi said that he had checked with others who witnessed Javid's detention and they, too, had confirmed that it was the same man.

The regime has put blame for Ms Soltan's murder on fellow demonstrators, the CIA, hostile foreign governments including Britain, and even the BBC.

Dr Hejazi, a student at Oxford Brookes University, had returned to Iran for a business trip after the June 12 election but he fled after featuring prominently in the video of Soltan's last moments. (ANI)