Iran’s Forensic Medicine Authority said on Friday that a young woman, Mahsa Amini, whose death after being arrested by the vice police sparked widespread protests, died as a result of the effects of a previous illness, and not due to “strike” to vital organs. organs.
And a report released by state-run media said Mahasa Amini’s “death was not due to blows to the head or vital organs of the body,” but rather related to the aftermath of her “surgery to remove a brain tumor at the age of eight.”
Police detained Amini on September 13 in Tehran for wearing “inappropriate clothing” and authorities said she suffered a heart attack after being transferred to a police station “to maintain discipline.”
Amini’s family denied that she had any heart problems, and her father had previously said “her leg was bruised” and blamed police for her death.
On September 28, Amini’s cousin gave new information about the cause of her death and said: “They beat her, as the witnesses and her brother said. According to witnesses, she was beaten with sticks on her head, on her legs and on her face with fists (…) Her brother witnessed this, they beat her in front of him. And he bears witness to it.”
Sarina Ismailzade
Iranian media on Friday, citing authorities, denied reports that security forces were involved in the killing of a 16-year-old girl during her participation in protests sparked by the death of a young woman in police custody.
Authorities indicated that the girl committed suicide by throwing herself from a rooftop, Reuters reported.
Amnesty International and social media posts reported that security forces killed Sarina Ismayilzadeh when they hit her on the head with batons during protests against the killing of Mahsa Amini.
The semi-official Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) quoted Chief Justice of Alborz Province, where she died, Sarina Ismayilzade, as saying that preliminary investigation shows her death was a suicide from the roof of a five-story building.
Human rights groups say more than 150 people have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested in a crackdown on protests that pose the biggest challenge for ruling Iranian clerics in years.
Women played a prominent role in the protests, some waving and burning headscarves, as did high school students.
In a report released on 30 September, Amnesty International said that Zada was one of at least 52 people killed by security forces between 19 and 25 September and that she “died after being severely beaten on the head with truncheons”.
The video clip of Ismaelzadeh smiling and listening to music has been viewed about 147,000 times on the widely shared (1,500) Twitter account.
Earlier this week, Iranian authorities said 17-year-old Nika Chakermi also “fell from a great height” and activists say she was killed in Tehran while participating in a demonstration to protest the killing of Amini.
State media reported this week that authorities had launched an investigation into Shakermi’s death and quoted officials as saying the case had nothing to do with the protests and that she had fallen from a roof and had no bullet wounds. body.
For her part, Nika Shakermi’s mother, Nasrin, accused the authorities of being responsible for her daughter’s death on the sidelines of her participation in the protests, in a video broadcast by Farsi-language channels outside of Iran, AFP reported.
Protests have been going on in Iran for three weeks since the death of Amini on September 16, and protests involving students and university students have resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, including members of the security forces, AFP reported.