"We heard a gunshot. Neda was standing a metre away from me… I saw blood gushing out of her chest"
Dr Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in the south of England, has stated that he ran to Neda Agha-Soltan’s after she was shot by a Basij member. Although he tried to stop the bleeding, she died in less than a minute, he said.
He continued to recount how protesters then seized an armed Basij militia volunteer on a motorcycle.
"People shouted ‘we got him, we got him’. They disarmed him and took out his identity card which showed he was a Basij member. People were furious and he was shouting, ‘I didn’t want to kill her’.
"People didn’t know what do to do with him so they let him go. But they took his identity card. There are people there who know who he is. Some people were also taking photos of him."
Dr Hejazi had not slept for three nights following Neda’s murder, but he wanted to speak out so that her death would not be in vain.He cannot go back to Iran now that he has spoken out. The retribution would be harsh.
"I was there with some friends because we had heard that there were some protests and we decided to go and take a look," he said."Anti-riot police were coming by motorcycles towards the crowd."
Dr Hejazi described the shooting: Neda Soltan was there with an older man thought to be her father, but was really her music teacher.
"Suddenly everything turned crazy. The police threw teargas and the motorcycles started rushing towards the crowd. We ran to an intersection and people were just standing. They didn’t know what to do. We heard a gunshot. I saw blood gushing out of Neda’s chest. She was in a shocked situation, just looking at her chest. Then she lost her control. We ran to her and lay her on the ground. "
"I saw the bullet wound just below the neck with blood gushing out. I had the impression that it had hit the lung as well. Her blood was draining out of her body and I was just putting pressure on the wound to try to stop the bleeding, which wasn’t successful unfortunately, and she died in less than one minute."
Dr Hejazi said he knew he was putting himself in jeopardy by talking about what happened.
"It was a tough decision to make to come out and talk about it but she died for a cause. She was fighting for basic rights… I don’t want her blood to have been shed in vain."
"She died on the streets to say something."
"They are going to denounce what I am saying. They are going to put so many things on me. I have never been in politics. I am jeopardising my situation because of the innocent look in her (Neda’s) eyes."
[...] have an eyewitness report that I believe far more than that idiot (Doctor Speaks Out). Heck, I believe a goat more than I do [...]