CNN
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A man was reportedly killed by security forces in northern Iran during a public celebration by anti-government protesters after the national football team lost to the United States on Tuesday.
The Norwegian-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Mehran Samak was shot in the head by security personnel during a celebration in Bandar Anzali on Tuesday night. The IHR said it had confirmed the information through “several independent sources”.
“His name was #MehranSamak. I was 27,” an Iranian human rights group said Wednesday.
The IHR and other activist groups initially reported that authorities held Samak’s body and refused to return it to his family. The IHR has shared a video of people gathering outside the state’s forensics body demanding the bodies be returned to their families.
Later on Wednesday, the reformist news outlet Iranwire shared a video of a crowd chanting “death to the dictator” at Samak’s funeral in Bandar Anzali.
Iranian police have denied that Samak was killed by authorities and have announced the arrest of several suspects, Iran’s state-run news agency Tasmin reported on Thursday.
“After a football match between our national team and the United States, a large mob gathered in the Sherak Bagh district of Anzali and discovered the dead body of a man around the age of 30. According to Tasnim, Bandar Anzali Police Chief Colonel Jafar Jabanmardi said he was shot with a hunting rifle, based on existing evidence.
Javanmardi denied opposition media reports that Samak had been shot in the head by authorities, saying: ” said Tasnim.
Tasnim also published a photo of Samak with the article.
Anzali County Police Chief also said a number of suspects had been identified and arrested, and attempts to identify the perpetrators continued, Tasnim reported.
Samak was a close friend of Saeed Ezatrahi, a member of Iran’s national football team who had just returned to Iran after the team’s exit from the World Cup in Qatar. The footballer posted a tribute to his childhood friend on Instagram on Wednesday.
“I wish we could be the same age forever… no worries, no hate, no jealousy, no fights to put each other down… What I want to say to my childhood teammates is… There are many, but unfortunately people are drowning in ego and jealousy, and it has become such a mess that you can hardly find anyone listening to these words, or none at all…
“After an undoubtedly bitter night last night, the news of your death burns my heart even more.”
Iranian prosecutor Mehdi Fallah Miri said the case of Samak’s “suspicious” killing began after he died “from a pellet bullet,” the state-run Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported Thursday. rice field.
“As soon as this suspected incident occurred, a case was opened to deal with the matter, and the Bandar Anzali public prosecutor is handling the case,” Miri added.
Several videos emerged on social media showing people in cities across Iran, including the capital Tehran, celebrating inside their homes and residential buildings after the United States beat Iran 1-0 in the World Cup on Tuesday night. Posted in media.
“This makes me happy that the government has lost to the people,” a witness at a celebration in a city in the Kurdish region told CNN on Wednesday. CNN did not name the witness due to security concerns.
Activist outlet 1500tasvir also posted a video showing security forces reportedly firing on people in Behbahan and beating a woman in Qazbin on Tuesday night. Both cities are Bandar He south of Anzali, where Samak is said to have been shot.
CNN is unable to independently verify information due to the Iranian government’s refusal to allow foreign media to enter the country and lack of transparency in its coverage of the protests and protest casualties.
Demonstrations rocked Iran for months and sparked a deadly crackdown by the authorities.
A nationwide uprising was first sparked by the death of Mertha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died in mid-September after being detained by the country’s morality police. We are united by various dissatisfactions with the government.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Director-General Volker Turk said the country was in a “genuine human rights crisis” as authorities cracked down on the protests.
