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IRAN - IHR Report: Death of Sina Ashgbousi, 16
February 2, 2026: February 2, 2026 - IRAN. IHR Report: Death of Sina Ashgbousi, 16
Victim Accounts: Sina Ashgbousi, Protester Whose Dreams Were Cut Short at 16
In an interview with a close relative of Sina Ashgbousi, Iran Human Rights has obtained details about the killing of this teenager during the nationwide protests of January 2026.
Sina Ashgbousi was killed just days after his 16th birthday. On the evening of 8 January, at the Third Square of Tehranpars in Tehran, he was shot in the abdomen and the heart by security forces using live ammunition.
A relative of Sina Ashgbousi, speaking to Iran Human Rights about the 8 January protests in which the 16-year-old was killed, said: “That evening, the crowd at the Third Square of Tehranpars had grown significantly. At first, there was no sign of security or military forces, and the number of protesters kept increasing. Suddenly, Sina decided—along with dozens of other young people—to move to the front line of the crowd and form a protective barrier. He was so joyful and hopeful that he kept shouting to his family, ‘We’ve won! We’ve won!’ Between 9:30 and 10 p.m., the sound of continuous gunfire suddenly tore through the street. From that moment on, everything happened very fast.”
According to Sina’s family, following the repeated gunfire by the forces, the street was covered in blood within moments.
Sina’s parents tried repeatedly to reach him by phone but received no answer. After numerous attempts, someone eventually answered Sina’s mobile phone and said that he had been wounded and taken to Tehranpars Hospital. The family rushed to the hospital immediately, only to be confronted with the lifeless body of their child—a teenager who had died after being struck by two live bullets to the abdomen and the heart, his body drenched in blood.
Sina’s family were among the few who managed to reach the hospital before his body was transferred to forensic facilities, sparing them the ordeal of searching through hundreds of corpses to identify their child. Nevertheless, according to an informed source who spoke to Iran Human Rights, they were only able to retrieve Sina’s body “after five days of relentless follow-up.” The source added: “Security agencies extracted a written undertaking from the family that Sina’s burial would be conducted quietly and without any public announcement.”
The same source, describing Sina and the reasons for his presence at the protests, said: “Sina had travelled to many countries and had experienced the meaning of freedom firsthand. He always dreamed that one day the people of his own country would live, like those in many other nations, in prosperity, security and freedom. That is why, when the protests began, he decided—together with his family—to take to the streets for the ‘freedom of Iran’.”
According to the source, Sina was born on 28 December 2009. He was a kind, gifted young man and the only son of a cultured, educated family, raised among paintings and books, and he dreamed of becoming a doctor. “But the Islamic Republic destroyed all his dreams with two bullets.”
Sina’s mother, a writer, had given him her first book when he was six years old—a work titled The Legend of the Golden Boy, which she read to him every night for a long time.
According to the source close to the family, Sina Ashgbousi’s parents remain under close surveillance and intense pressure from security forces. Their home telephone lines are monitored, and the family has even been prevented from contacting their closest relatives abroad.
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/8582/ (Source: IHR)
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