Iran said on Friday that an investigation into Maha Amini’s death in custody found that she died of illness rather than the beating that sparked three weeks of bloody protests.
Amini, 22, died in Tehran on September 16, three days after she fell into a coma after being arrested by morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
Outrage over his death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to shake Iran in nearly three years and a crackdown that has left dozens dead and many arrested.
Despite the use of lethal force by security forces, the women-led protests continued for 20 consecutive days and nights, according to online videos.
Iran’s Forensic Organization said on Friday that “Mohsa Amini died from injuries to the head and vital organs and body parts”.
The death of Amini, whose Kurdish first name is Jehina, was related to “brain tumor surgery at the age of 8,” it said in a statement.
Amini’s bereaved parents have filed a complaint against the officers involved, and one of his cousins ​​living in Iraq told that he died from a “violent blow to the head”.
Other teenage girls have lost their lives in the protests, but Amnesty International says Iran is coercing televised confessions from their families to “absolve themselves of responsibility for their deaths.”
‘Suicide’
The mother of 16-year-old Nika Shahkarami, who died after disappearing on September 20, insisted on Thursday that she was killed by the state after joining an anti-hijab protest in Tehran.
Nasreen Shahkrami also accused the authorities of threatening to force her to confess to the death of her 16-year-old daughter Nika.
“I saw my daughter’s body myself… the back of her head showed that she had received a very severe blow because her skull was stuck. That’s how she was killed,” he told Radio Farda. said in a video posted online by the U.S.-backed A Persian station based in Prague.
Iran has since denied reports that its security forces killed another teenage girl, Serena Ismailzadeh, at a rally in Karaj, west of Tehran.
Its website quoted a prosecutor as saying that an investigation found that 16-year-old Ismailzadeh had committed “suicide” by jumping from the building.
In a sweeping crackdown, Iran has blocked access to social media, including Instagram and WhatsApp, and security forces have rounded up high-profile supporters of the movement, including journalists and pop stars.
Demonstrators have found ways to avoid detection, with schoolgirls covering their faces chanting “Death to the dictator” and desecrating images of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in verified videos. are
Other footage shows people chanting “woman, life, freedom” from their apartment windows at night.
Another form of protest emerged on Friday morning, with fountains in Tehran seen spewing blood after an artist turned the water red to reflect the bloody crackdown.
‘Toll Far Higher’
Street violence across Iran, dubbed “riots” by authorities, has led to dozens of deaths – mostly protesters but also members of the security forces.
The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights says at least 92 protesters have been killed in the crackdown so far.
Iranian security forces have arrested supporters of the movement, including activists, journalists and pop stars.
Despite such measures, protests continue in the cities and towns of the Islamic Republic.
A group of young women can be heard chanting slogans in the northern city of Rasht in a video posted online on Thursday.
Other confirmed footage showed women chanting “Azadi”, Persian for freedom, and clapping loudly as they marched down a street in Quds city, west of the capital.
Amnesty International has confirmed 52 deaths at the hands of Iran’s security forces, but believes the “actual death toll is much higher”.
A statement released a week ago said Iran was deliberately using lethal force to crush protests led by women.
It said it had obtained a leaked document issued to armed forces commanders in all provinces on September 21 ordering them to “combat sternly” the protesters.
Another leaked document shows a commander in Mazandaran province told forces to “combat mercilessly, as far as casualties, rioters and any unrest by counter-revolutionaries”.
