Khoi is a city of about 180,000 people near the border with Turkey in West Azerbaijan province. Kurdish separatists have long been active in the area and officials were intent on blaming them.
Officials said Haji-Gholi-zadeh was fired on by two men in a Peugeot who fled the scene without leaving any traces.
But several hours after the murder, officials said four men had been arrested as suspects. They were not named or identified as Kurds. No one said on what basis they had been arrested.
Fakhr Ali Nikbakht, the provincial political director, told the Mehr news agency that the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PEJAK), the main Kurdish separatist group in the area, had claimed responsibility for the killing, but no public comment from PEJAK has yet been seen.
Furthermore, Mohammad-Ali Musavi, the provincial judicial director, said, “So far, no group has claimed responsibility.”
Like most, Khoi Governor Ebrahim Mohammadlu-Bamdad focused his attention on counter-revolutionaries. Mehr said he stated that the slain prosecutor had no personal problems with any person or group, though it wasn’t explained how he would know that.