CNN
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One person was reportedly killed by security forces during public celebrations organized by anti-government protesters in northern Iran. of the national football team Lost to the USA on Tuesday.
Norway-based human rights group Iran Human Rights (UST) said Mehran Samak was shot in the head by security guards while he was outside. celebrating Tuesday night in Bandar Anzali. UST said they have confirmed the information from “several independent sources”.
Her name was #MehranSamak. Last night, like many across the country, he was shot in the head by state forces as he went out to celebrate the Islamic Republic’s defeat at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Bandar Anzali. He was only 27 years old,” Iran Human Rights said on Wednesday.
The UST and other activist groups initially reported that authorities held Samak’s body and refused to return it to his family. UST shared a video showing people gathered outside the state’s Forensic Medicine Institute demanding that the body be handed over to the family.
Later Wednesday, pro-reform news outlet IranWire shared a video showing the crowd chanting “death to the dictator” at Samak’s funeral in Bandar Anzali.
Iranian police denied that Samak was killed by authorities and announced the arrest of several suspects, Iran’s state-linked Tasmin news agency reported on Thursday.
“After the match between our national team and the USA, a large number of rebels gathered in Anzali’s Cheraq Bargh neighborhood and the body of a 30-year-old man was found. According to Tasnim, Bandar Anzali police chief Colonel Jafar Javanmardi said that according to available evidence, he was shot with a hunting rifle.
Javanmardi denied the opposition media reports that Samak was shot in the head by the authorities: “Initially, counter-revolutionary and opposition media reported that this young man was shot in the head by the authorities and later died in hospital. According to Tasnim.
Tasnim also published Samak’s photo along with the article.
The Anzali District police chief also said that a number of suspects had been identified and arrested, and the attempt to identify the assailant was continuing, Tasnim reported.
Samak was a close friend of Saeid Ezatolahi, a member of the Iran national football team who had just returned to Iran after the team left the World Cup in Qatar. The footballer paid homage to his childhood friend on Instagram on Wednesday.
“I wish we could always stay the same age… Without any anxiety, without grudges, without jealousy, without fighting to knock each other down… My childhood teammate has a lot to say but unfortunately people drown in ego and jealousy and they become such there is not even a person listening to the words or there is no one at all…
“After another bitter night last night, my heart aches even more with certainty and the news of your death.”
Iranian prosecutor Mehdi Fallah Miri said a case was opened in the “suspicious” murder of Samak after he died “by a pellet”, Iran’s state-linked Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported on Thursday.
According to ISNA, Miri said, “As soon as this suspicious incident happened, a case was opened to look into the matter and Bender Anzali’s prosecutor is handling the case.”
a few videos Posted on social media Tuesday night shows people celebrating in their homes and residences in cities across Iran, including the capital Tehran, after the US beat Iran 1-0 at the World Cup.
“I am happy, this government is losing to the people,” he told CNN on Wednesday in a city in the Kurdish region. CNN does not name the witness due to security concerns.
Activist outlet 1500tasvir also reportedly posted videos showing security forces firing at people in Behbahan, south of Bandar Anzali, on Tuesday night, and beating a woman in Qazvin, where Samak was said to have been shot.
CNN cannot independently verify information that the Iranian government does not allow foreign media to enter the country, and is not transparent in its reporting on the protests and protest disappearances.
The demonstrations have rattled Iran for several months and led to deadly crackdown by the authorities.
The nationwide uprising was first Death of Mahsa AminiA 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman died in mid-September after being detained by the country’s morality police. Since then, protesters in Iran have united around a series of complaints with the regime.
Volker Türk, Head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the country was in a “full-fledged human rights crisis” as the authorities suppressed the protests.
