Iranian activist's murder linked to another death

The police are investigating a possible link between the murder of Iranian activist Ahmad Mola Nissi in The Hague in November last year, and the murder of another Iranian, 58-year-old Ali Motamed, in Almere in 2015, the Telegraaf reports.

Last month the police arrested three suspects from Amsterdam in connection with Motamed's murder. And earlier this week the police did a reconstruction of Nissi's murder on Jan van Riebeekstraat in The Hague. A police spokesperson told the Telegraaf that investigators are looking at several scenarios with regards to Nissi's murder, and a link between the two murders is one of them.

The perpetrators in both murders used very similar methods, according to the newspaper. Both men were gunned down in front of their home. And in both cases gunmen opened fired on them and then fled in a stolen BMW.

Nissi was a leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA). He moved to the Netherlands 10 years ago through the UN and lived in Maastricht for years, before he hastily moved to The Hague because opponents learnt his home address. The Tehran government regards ASMLA as a terrorist organization.

The Iranian activist's family believes his murder was politically motivated. Attention will be brought to his murder with a demonstration in Brussels next month, his daughter Hawra said to the Telegraaf. "Arabs from all corners of the world will come together to ask international attention for our father's case", she said. "Every year the at the European Union's building attention is paid to the conquest of the Ahwaz region by te Iranian regime in 1925. Our father fought for independence for our country and was therefore murdered by the Iranian secret service."