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IRAN - On the killing of 17-year-old protester Nika Shakarami
October 6, 2022: Contradictory claims by the Islamic Republic about 17-year-old protester, Nika Shakarami’s cause of death based on grainy edited footage and her relatives’ forced televised confessions under duress are unacceptable.
Given the Islamic Republic’s long history of concealing, lying and manipulating evidence, Iran Human Rights rejects the official account of Nika Shakarami’s death due to the contradictions and flaws, and holds the Islamic Republic responsible for her murder.
Iran Human Rights Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: "The evidence points to the government’s role in Nika Shakarami's murder; Unless the opposite is proven by an independent fact-finding mission under the supervision of the United Nations. Until such a committee is formed, the responsibility for Nika's murder, like the other victims of the current protests, rests with Ali Khamenei and the forces under his command.”
Nika Shakarami, 17, disappeared after taking part in the protests on Keshavarz Boulevard on September 20. Her lifeless body was returned to her family on October 1, ten days after she went missing.
Relatives believe she was killed in the protests. Though they were prevented from seeing her body, Nika’s mother and aunt saw her nose had been smashed and her head injured. In the death certificate, her cause of death has been cited as “multiple blows caused by a hard object.” This is while the authorities declared that she had fallen from a building.
Last night, IRIB aired the official account on its 20:30 program which included grainy edited footage of someone they claim to be Nika Shakarami and the forced confessions of her relatives. None of the claims made in the program or in official press are clear and further add to the contradictions.
Furthermore, Nika was due to be buried in her hometown of Khorram Abad, but her body was stolen from the mortuary by security forces and buried in the Visian village cemetery in Lorestan province without her family and loved ones present.
Nika’s aunt, Atash Shakarami was arrested after speaking out about her niece. That her forced confessions were televised on IRIB, which the Islamic Republic has a long recorded history of, clearly demonstrates that the circumstances around her death should be investigated by an international independent committee.
Evidence obtained by Iran Human Rights, press interviews and research contradict the official account by the Islamic Republic. Iran Human Rights rejects the Islamic Republic’s officials account due to their lack of impartiality and history of cover-ups, and as such, any investigation can only be conducted by competent international authorities.
As all previous requests by Iran Human Rights for international investigations have been ignored by the Islamic Republic, until an international fact-finding mission is accepted, Iran Human Rights holds the Islamic Republic, with Supreme Leader, Ali Khameini at its head, directly responsible for Nika Shakarami’s murder and has included her name in the list of slain protesters.
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/5512/ (Source: IHR)
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