Act Daily News
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A person is reported to have been killed by safety forces in northern Iran throughout public celebrations by anti-government protesters following the nationwide soccer workforce’s defeat in opposition to the United States on Tuesday.
Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) stated Mehran Samak was shot within the head by safety personnel when he was out celebrating in Bandar Anzali Tuesday evening. IHR stated they confirmed the data by means of “several independent sources.”
“His name was #MehranSamak. He was shot in the head by state forces when he went out to celebrate the Islamic Republic’s loss at FIFA World Cup2022 in Bandar Anzali last night like many across the country. He was just 27 years old,” Iran Human Rights stated on Wednesday.
IHR and different activist teams had initially reported that authorities had been holding Samak’s physique and had been refusing at hand it again to his household. IHR shared a video displaying individuals gathered exterior the state’s Forensic Medical Organization demanding the physique be returned to his household.
Later on Wednesday, pro-reform news outlet IranWire shared video displaying crowds at Samak’s funeral in Bandar Anzali chanting “death to dictator.”
Iranian police denied that Samak was killed by authorities and introduced the arrest of a number of suspects, Iran’s state aligned Tasmin news company reported Thursday.
“Following the football game between our national team and the US, a number of rioters had gathered in the Cheraq Bargh quarter of Anzali and the corpse of a man, around 30, was discovered. Based on existing evidence, he had been shot by a hunting rifle,” Bandar Anzali police chief Colonel Jafar Javanmardi stated in response to Tasnim.
Javanmardi denied opposition media reviews that Samak had been shot within the head by authorities saying, “initially, the counter-revolutionary and opposition media had reported this as this young man having been shot in the head by the authorities and having later died in the hospital,” in response to Tasnim.
Tasnim additionally revealed Samak’s picture with the article.
Anzali County’s police chief additionally stated that a variety of suspects had been recognized and arrested and the try to establish the assailant continues, Tasnim reported.
Samak was a detailed good friend of Saeid Ezatolahi, a member of Iran’s nationwide soccer workforce, who had simply returned to Iran after the workforce’s exit from the World Cup in Qatar. The footballer posted a tribute to his childhood good friend on Instagram on Wednesday.
“I want we may at all times keep on the similar age…. with none considerations, with out hate, with out jealousy, with out combating to place one another down…. There is far to say my childhood workforce mate however sadly persons are drowning in ego and jealousy and turning into a large number you could hardly even discover individuals listening to those phrases or they don’t exist in any respect…
“Definitely after another bitter night last night and with the news of your death, my heart is even more on fire.”
Iranian prosecutor Mehdi Fallah Miri stated a case into the “suspicious” killing of Samak had been opened after he died “due to a pellet bullet,” the state-aligned Iran Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported Thursday.
“As soon as this suspicious incident happened, a case was opened to deal with the issue and the prosecutor of Bandar Anzali is handling the case,” Miri added, in response to ISNA.
Several movies had been posted on social media Tuesday evening displaying individuals in cities throughout Iran, together with within the capital Tehran, celebrating inside their houses and residential buildings after the US defeated Iran 1-0 within the World Cup.
“I am happy, this is the government losing to the people,” one witness to celebrations in a metropolis within the Kurdish area advised Act Daily News on Wednesday. Act Daily News shouldn’t be naming the witness for safety considerations.
Activist outlet 1500tasvir additionally posted movies displaying safety forces reportedly on Tuesday evening, opening hearth at individuals in Behbahan and beating up a lady in Qazvin, each cities south of Bandar Anzali the place Samak is alleged to have been shot.
Act Daily News can’t independently verify the data as Iran’s authorities shouldn’t be permitting overseas media into the nation, and has not been clear in its reporting on protests and protest casualties.
Demonstrations have rocked Iran for a number of months, sparking a lethal clampdown from authorities.
The nationwide rebellion was first ignited by the dying of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl who died in mid-September after being detained by the nation’s morality police. Since then, protesters throughout Iran have coalesced round a variety of grievances with the regime.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Chief, Volker Turk, has stated that the nation is in a “full-fledged human rights crisis” as authorities crack down on the protests.