CNN
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Iranian security forces have arrested eight people in connection with the death of 16-year-old teenager Nika Shahkarami. Teheran Last month, Iranian media said on Tuesday.
His family members told BBC Persian his whereabouts were unknown for 10 days before they found his body in a morgue in the capital.
His aunt, Atash Shahkarami, BBC told in Persian In an interview on Friday, he said that his nephew left his house around 17:00 local time on September 20 and was in contact with him until 19:00.
The aunt said that Shahkarami’s friend shared a story on Instagram that showed the teenager burning her hijab and said that Shahkarami was being followed by security guards.
The aunt told BBC Persian that after that the family lost contact with Shahkarami. The family found him 10 days later in a morgue in a detention center in the capital.
“When we went to identify him, they didn’t let us see his body, they just let us see his face for a few seconds,” Atash Shahkarami told BBC Persian.
State-linked news agency Tasnim said Shahkarami was found dead in the backyard of a Tehran house on September 21. Tasnim said police watched footage of Shahkarami entering an adjacent building and it remained unclear how he died. Tasnim said there was “no evidence” of “foreign media” allegations that the teenager was killed by the police.
The semi-official Fars News agency released CCTV footage on Wednesday that it claims shows the last moments of Shahkarami’s life.
The video, which the agency says it obtained from the police and judicial authorities, shows a person entering an alley and entering a house, removing his face mask as he enters the door. The person cannot be identified immediately.
The video’s timecode indicates that it was shot just after 12:00 local time; Lights on the door of a neighboring house and shadows on the street indicate that the video was recorded at night.
“This is the last video of Nika Shahkarami 7 hours before her body was discovered,” said Fars News, claiming it showed the teenager entering a half-finished house near her aunt’s street while talking on her cell phone.
Tasnim reported that the eight people arrested were workers in the building that Shahkarami allegedly entered.
State-run IRNA said a criminal case against Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi has been opened and conveyed his condolences to Shahkarami’s family.
CNN reached out to the family for comment.
Shahkarami’s death comes as nationwide protests i.e. storm of iran Following the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September after being detained by the country’s morality police for her dressing style.
Across the country, girls and women are protesting on school and university campuses and on the streets. Social media videos show Iranian women and girls chanting “death to the dictator” and taking off their mandatory headscarves, known as headscarves, in protest.
Anti-regime demonstrations also penetrated Power bases of the Islamic Republic, including the Shiite holy cities of Mashhad and Qum. Ethnic minorities – especially the Kurds in the country’s north and northwest and the Baloch people in the southeast – have held up protests, withstanding what appears to be some of the most brutal repressions, with large numbers reported to have been killed.
this wild compression Protesters by Iranian authorities have come to the attention of the United States, which is expected to impose new sanctions this week against law enforcement and those directly involved, a source familiar with the planned move told CNN.
Moving quickly to throw his support behind the demonstrators, President Joe Biden issued a deliberately vague statement on Monday, promising more costs to “those who use violence against peaceful protesters”. Those costs are expected this week to come in the form of additional sanctions and potentially more action to follow, a source told CNN.
On Wednesday, state media and other organizations shared a video of pro-government demonstrators – mostly women – waving flags and holding placards in support of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on the streets of Tehran.
School teacher Fatemeh Shahvelayati, who was present at the meeting, told Agence France-Presse: “While we all live with different beliefs, the headscarf was our enemies’ excuse to break our unity and it was never a problem.”
The day before, CNN saw girls from a vocational high school in Tehran protest in a street near their school. They were heard shouting “women, life, freedom” and “Iran’s honorable support” and “death to the dictator”.
To commemorate his nephew on Instagram, Atash Shahkarami wrote: “Thousands and thousands of brave people are born from the death of brave people!
