{"id":1218,"date":"2018-01-12T18:37:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T18:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1218"},"modified":"2018-01-12T18:37:21","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T18:37:21","slug":"iran-should-launch-independent-investigation-of-deaths-of-two-protesters-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1218","title":{"rendered":"Iran Should Launch Independent Investigation of Deaths of Two Protesters in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey arrested him and then they beat and killed him. Now they want to destroy his reputation.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

January 11, 2018\u2014CHRI – Iran should launch an independent investigation of the cases of two detainees who died in custody, allegedly by suicide, after being arrested during the recent protests in Iran. The results of the investigations should be shared with the public at every stage of the process with full transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are serious questions surrounding these protesters\u2019 deaths,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter protesters died in custody at the Kahrizak Detention Center in 2009, the authorities claimed suicide then too, but in the end they could not deny that the victims died as a result of torture and Kahrizak\u2019s inhumane conditions,\u201d added Ghaemi.<\/p>\n

Twenty-three-year-old\u00a0Sina Ghanbari<\/a>\u00a0died in custody in Tehran under unknown circumstances on January 7, 2018. The authorities claimed he killed himself in Evin Prison.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two-year old Mohammad Heydari died in detention at the 12th Police Station in Arak sometime between the end of December 2017 and the beginning of January 2018. His lawyer told CHRI the authorities are trying to cover-up the real reason for his death by claiming he committed suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that this young man did not take his own life,\u201d Najafi told CHRI on January 8, 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis young man was a protester,\u201d said Mohammad Najafi, who works in the city of Arak where Heydari was arrested on December 31, 2017. \u201cThey arrested him and then they beat and killed him. Now they want to destroy his reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Bagheri, a civil rights activist based in Arak, told CHRI that one of Heydari\u2019s relatives told him they had seen evidence of a severe blow to Heydari\u2019s skull before his body was buried. Heydari\u2019s family has been pressured to avoid speaking to the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of his relatives who had seen his body told me that there was a deep gash on the top of the left side of his head,\u201d said Bagheri. \u201cIt was as if he had been struck with an axe. Nobody commits suicide like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey killed him and then they warned his family not to speak to anyone or the media,\u201d he added. \u201cThere was a heavy security presence at his funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHRI calls on the Iranian authorities to stop the intimidation and attempted silencing of the families of those who have died in detention and on the streets, and to refrain from smearing the victims in an attempt to influence public opinion.<\/p>\n

At least\u00a025 people<\/a>\u00a0have been killed since anti-government demonstrations broke out across Iran on December 28, 2017. The protests have been harshly repressed by the authorities and thousands are being held without charge.<\/p>\n

CHRI also calls for the release of the\u00a0more than 3,700<\/a>\u00a0demonstrators who have been detained, many without charge, since the protests broke out.<\/p>\n

No Official Medical Report on Heydari\u2019s Cause of Death<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heydari was street peddling in one of Arak\u2019s main squares when he joined a protest on December 31, 2017. He was detained at the 12th Police Station and on January 6, 2018, security agents ordered his burial in section 34 of Arak\u2019s Behesht Zahra Cemetery.<\/p>\n

The authorities immediately claimed Heydari committed suicide but the medical examiner has not yet issued a report on the cause of his death.<\/p>\n

The authorities also claimed Heydari was a drug addict who had 10 grams of heroin in his possession at the time of his arrest, a claim his family has strongly denied.<\/p>\n

On January 10, Central Province Prosecutor Abbas Ghassemi confirmed that one person had died in detention in Arak, the provincial capital, but did not mention Heydari by name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were definite signs of self-beating on this individual. There is also a film showing the moment he committed suicide. Therefore, the evidence confirms that his death was caused by suicide,\u201d Ghassemi told\u00a0Mizan<\/a>, the judiciary\u2019s official news agency.<\/p>\n

Heydari\u2019s lawyer told CHRI that other detainees had reported being beaten at the station where Heydari died.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the first day of protests in Arak on December 30, there were no street confrontations. But on the second day, it dragged into a little bit of tension and confrontation. Vahid Heydari was arrested on this day,\u201d said Najafi, who had offered his services pro bono to Heydari\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have received reports of cases of people who were beaten at that police station during this period,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have also visited Heydari\u2019s village near Arak and spoke to his family and associates who have denied he was ever an addict or sold drugs. They are very upset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several members of Heydari\u2019s family are known in their village as \u201cmartyrs\u201d of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) and his father is a disabled veteran of the conflict.<\/p>\n

The civil rights activist who spoke with CHRI also visited Heydari\u2019s birthplace, the village of Takiyeh, and spoke to several villagers about Heydari\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone says he died from blows from a baton in detention,\u201d said Bagheri. \u201cThe police are denying that and are saying he was arrested for carrying drugs and committed suicide in detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut his family says he was a very honorable man and that the accusations don\u2019t stick,\u201d he added. \u201cHe did not use or sell drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don\u2019t know what happened to Vahid,\u201d one of Heydari\u2019s relatives told CHRI on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. \u201cWe were in the village and he was in Arak. He was busy working. He was not an addict. What they are saying about him is untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghaemi said the Iranian government should allow an independent investigation of Heydari and Ghanbari\u2019s deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these protesters\u2019 deaths were not caused by the authorities or conditions at the facilities where they were held, then the judiciary and state officials have no reason to impede an independent investigation,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 11, 2018\u2014CHRI – Iran should launch an independent investigation of the cases of two detainees who died in custody, allegedly by suicide, after being arrested during the recent protests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[309,240,381],"class_list":["post-1218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-chri","tag-hadi-ghaemi","tag-kahrizak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}