CNN
—
Iranian safety forces have arrested eight individuals over the death of a 16-year-old teenager, Nika Shahkarami, in Tehran final month, Iranian media mentioned on Tuesday.
Family members informed BBC Persian that her whereabouts was unknown for 10 days earlier than they discovered her physique in a morgue within the capital.
Her aunt, Atash Shahkarami, told BBC Persian in an interview Friday that her niece left her house on September 20 round 5 p.m. native time, and that she was involved along with her till 7 p.m.
The aunt mentioned she was informed by Shahkarami’s buddy that {the teenager} posted a narrative to Instagram exhibiting her burning her scarf, and that Shahkarami informed her she was being adopted by safety brokers.
After that, the household misplaced contact with Shahkarami, the aunt informed BBC Persian. The household discovered her 10 days later at a morgue in at a detention heart within the capital.
“When we went to identify her, they didn’t allow us to see her body, only her face for a few seconds,” Atash Shahkarami informed BBC Persian.
State-aligned information company Tasnim mentioned Shahkarami was discovered lifeless on September 21 within the yard of a home in Tehran. Tasnim mentioned that police watched surveillance footage of Shahkarami coming into an adjoining constructing and that it stays unclear how she died. Tasnim mentioned there’s “no evidence” of claims by “foreign media” that that {the teenager} was killed by the police.
The semi-official Fars News company on Wednesday revealed CCTV footage that it claimed confirmed the final moments of Shahkarami’s life.
The video, which the company mentioned it obtained from police and judicial authorities, exhibits an individual stroll into an alley and enter a house, flattening their face masks as they stroll via the door. The individual just isn’t instantly identifiable.
The video’s timecode signifies that it was filmed simply after 12 a.m. native time; lights within the doorway of a neighboring house and shadows on the road counsel that the video was recorded at evening.
“This is the last video of Nika Shahkarami, 7 hours before her body was discovered,” Fars News mentioned, claiming that it confirmed {the teenager} going right into a half-finished house close to her aunt’s alley whereas speaking on her cell phone.
The eight individuals arrested had been employees within the constructing the place Shahkarami allegedly entered, Tasnim reported.
Tehran’s prosecutor Ali Salehi mentioned a judicial legal case has been launched and expressed his condolences to Shahkarami’s household, state-run IRNA mentioned.
CNN reached out to the household for remark.
Shahkarami’s death comes as nationwide protests take Iran by storm following the death in September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl who died after being detained by the nation’s morality police for a way she was dressed.
Girls and girls throughout the nation have been protesting in school and college campuses and out on the streets. Social media movies present Iranian ladies and ladies chanting “death to the dictator” and are seen taking off their obligatory headscarves, referred to as hijabs, in protest.
Anti-regime demonstrations have additionally penetrated the Islamic Republic’s energy bases, together with the Shia holy cities of Mashhad and Qom. Ethnic minorities – notably Kurds within the nation’s north and northwest, and Baloch individuals within the southeast – have additionally staged protests, enduring what seem like a few of the most brutal crackdowns, with scores reportedly killed.
The ferocious clampdown on protesters from Iranian authorities has drawn consideration from the US, which is anticipated to concern new sanctions this week towards legislation enforcement officers and people straight concerned, a supply aware of the deliberate motion told CNN.
President Joe Biden, who has moved rapidly to throw his help behind the demonstrators, issued an deliberately obscure assertion Monday promising additional prices “on perpetrators of violence against peaceful protestors.” A supply informed CNN these prices are anticipated to be within the type of extra sanctions this week, with extra motion to probably comply with.
On Wedneday, state-affiliated media and different retailers shared video of pro-government demonstrators on the streets of Tehran – a lot of them ladies – waving flags and holding indicators in help of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
School instructor Fatemeh Shahvelayati who was on the gathering informed Agence France-Presse: “Hijab was the excuse of our enemies to destroy our unity, while we all lived together with different beliefs and it was never a problem.”
A day earlier, CNN noticed ladies from a vocational highschool in Tehran protesting on a avenue close to their college. They had been heard shouting “woman, life, freedom” and “dignified Iranian support” in addition to “death to the dictator” – a well-liked chant heard amid demonstrations throughout the nation over the previous days.
In a tribute to her niece posted on Instagram, Atash Shahkarami wrote: “May hundreds and hundreds of courageous individuals be born from the death of courageous individuals!