Mohammad Mokhtari

Mohammad Mokhtari was a writer, poet, and mythologist who served on the organising committee of the Iranian Writers' Association. A leading figure in the effort to revive the association and defend freedom of expression in Iran, he was one of the 134 signatories of the landmark 1994 open letter 'We Are the Writers!' which demanded an end to censorship. On 3 December 1998, Mokhtari left his home and never returned. His body was found on 9 December in the town of Ray, south of Tehran — he had been strangled by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. His murder, together with that of Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh days later and the earlier killing of Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar, became the core cases of the chain murders investigation.