Activist suspected homicide victim
Native Iranian was peaceable, friends say
I only think of the agents of the IRANIAN regime as his first and last enemy. — Ardeshir Zarezadeh
TORONTO • An Iranian-canadian human rights advocate found dead in his home north of Toronto this week was a kind, polite gentleman who never argued with anyone, friends of his said Friday as police asked for help with the investigation.
York Regional Police have identified Mohammad Mehdi Amin Sadeghieh, 58, as the victim of a suspected homicide. Sadeghieh — who went by Mehdi Amin — was found dead in his townhouse on Wednesday afternoon, a police spokesman said.
Ardeshir Zarezadeh, a Toronto-based human rights advocate who fled Iran in 2004, met Amin at a political gathering 10 years ago.
“He caught my attention because I found him very polite and very nice. Unlike many, he never argued with people,” Zarezadeh said in an interview Friday.
Over the next decade, the two got to know each other and eventually became like brothers, Zarezadeh said. He last heard from Amin on Oct. 12, when they wished each other a happy Thanksgiving. They had planned to go on a bicycle ride together, but it never happened.
“I got so busy. I don’t know … He was in my mind every day, and I had this feeling that, ‘I have to call him.’ Very strange feeling. I was under the impression that, ‘It’s getting late, I have to call him and we have to plan for this bicycling together for next week.’ But I was so busy,” Zarezadeh said.
Police have not identified a suspected motive, and a spokesman would only say Friday that investigators will look at “everything.”
Zarezadeh urged police to take seriously the idea that it could have been politically motivated.
“I only think of the agents of the Iranian regime as his first and last enemy,” he said. “That’s the only thing I can think of.”
Kaveh Shahrooz, a Toronto-based lawyer and human rights activist who also knew Amin, reiterated Zarezadeh’s calls for a thorough investigation, saying many in the Iranian-canadian community are feeling unsafe.