A senior Iranian police official says the killing of a government eulogist is not “security or political”

🔸 The deputy commander-in-chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Law Enforcement Force on Tuesday said the killing of Hamidreza Rajabzadeh, a government eulogist, is a “routine” and “ordinary” matter that has been blown up.

🔸 Qasim Rezaei, in an interview with reporters, claimed that media outlets outside the country “made it big,” while he said the incident is not at a level that “we should bring it up in the news.”

🔸 He described the motive behind the killing of Rajabzadeh as “individual” and said the incident is not “security or political.”

🔸 Calling the killing of this eulogist “routine” and “ordinary” by this police official comes while, in the reports of all government media outlets and the social-media accounts supporting the government, it had been emphasized that the killing of this person was “very violent and merciless,” and that they “even gave the footage of the crime to his family.”

🔸 In all these reports, reference is also made to a video—part of which had been briefly and pixelated in a report by the Tasnim news agency—that claims to show the eulogist’s half-living, bloody body and that he was “mutilated.”

🔸 After the news of the death of this eulogist was released, Iranian media reported the arrest of four people.

🔸 In unofficial reports, it has been said that the government eulogist was abducted in the city of Mashhad in a vehicle.