Dr. Arash Hejazi, right, attending the 2008 Frankfurt Book Fair.
Until this morning, most of the world did not know the identity of the doctor who is seen treating Neda in the now famous video of her tragic death on the streets of Tehran last Saturday.
He has now arrived safely in London, and his identity has been revealed.
He is Arash Hejazi, a physician and novelist who lives in Tehran. Dr. Hejazi was the unwitting witness to Neda's death when she died in his arms as he was trying to give her aid. A friend accompanying him captured Neda's tragic last moments on cell phone, and the video was then sent out of Iran by emailing it to an Iranian expatriate named Hamed in The Netherlands, who was asked to see that it got into the hands of the media.
As Hamed told Matthew Weaver of The Guardian in a telephone interview earlier this week, about 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon he received a frantic message from his friend in Iran who said, "A girl has just been killed right next to me."
According to Hamed, he contacted friends in Tehran earlier in the day to see what was happening with the post-election protests, and the message from his friend was in response. Moments later, Hamed received the now famous video in his inbox, trembling at the prospect of what he was witnessing and the tremendous responsibility of having possession of the video and bringing it to the world.
Hamed initially posted the video on Facebook and YouTube, and appealed to the media to show it. Within hours, media had picked up the video and it was being broadcast around the world for millions to see. He had been careful to protect the identity of his friend out of concern for his safety.
Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho, who is a close friend of Dr. Hejazi, was stunned when he saw the Neda footage for the first time to recognize his friend attending to Neda in the video. He has reported on that this week in his blog, without revealing the name of the doctor until today, when he received the message that his friend arrived safely in London.
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