Saeed Karimian founder and chairman of the Persian-language GEM TV Group Channels was assassinated in the Turkish city of Istanbul late on Saturday night, Turkish and Iranian news agencies reported on Sunday.
The Iranian Revolutionary Court sentenced Karimian, in absentia in March to six years in prison for endangering the security of Iran after his media channels GEM TV attracted a large segment of Iranian viewers. GEM channels offer cultural and artistic content including popular Turkish films and series dubbed into Farsi.
Masked gunmen attacked Karimian, along with his Kuwaiti business partner, while they were driving through Maslak area in Istanbul, Turkey.
Turkish agencies reported that the assailants got out of their car and opened fire at Karimian and his companion. He died immediately after being shot more than 20 times, while the other man died later in hospital, and the attackers fled the crime scene.
“If Iran continues to assassinate its opponents abroad, as has happened to Saeed Karimian, it will face global responses,” Fakher Awur, a close friend of Saeed Karimian, accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of being behind the killing of the CEO of GEM group.
“The Iranian regime will not be able to assassinate its opponents to silence the voice of the Iranian opposition,” Karimian said earlier in a video posted on social media.
Karimian was born in 1969 in the Iranian city of Qain. His father was killed in Operation Mersad during the Iran-Iraq War, where he was a member of the Iranian opposition People’s Mujahedin of Iran organization.
After his father’s death, Karimian moved to Switzerland where the Iranian opposition was granted political asylum and began his media career by establishing the Persian GEM TV network in London in 2006.
Last Update: Sunday, 30 April 2017 KSA 15:58 – GMT 12:58
Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
