Iran’s judiciary confirmed the loss of life of Shahin Naseri in its custody. Naseri was identified for his horrifying account of torture towards executed wrestler and political prisoner Navid Afkari.
On Thursday, two days after Naseri’s loss of life was reported by activists, the pinnacle of Iran’s Prisons Group issued a “special directive” for a probe into the case. In a separate assertion circulated on Iranian media, authorities at Tehran’s Better Jail introduced that Naseri had died “45 minutes” after being transferred to the jail’s medical middle. With no additional particulars on the precise circumstances surrounding the sufferer’s loss of life, the assertion stated a full rationalization was pending the completion of forensic examinations.
Nonetheless, based on accounts by different inmates on the similar jail, the day earlier than his loss of life Naseri had been summoned by intelligence interrogators and brought to solitary confinement. “He was neither suicidal nor affected by any medical situation,” the prisoners have been quoted as saying by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization.
The middle additionally reported that Naseri had supposed to launch a brand new assertion on the anniversary of Afkari’s execution over the cellphone from contained in the jail earlier than his plan was detected by the guards.
Elsewhere, distinguished lawyer Babak Paknia declared the prisoner had given him a cellphone name at some point earlier than his loss of life and “pleaded for assist.” The lawyer supplied no additional particulars on the prisoner’s request.
Praised by many Iranians for his “bravery,” Naseri was reportedly below mounting strain from Iran’s Intelligence Ministry after he signed a witness account detailing excessive torture strategies towards Afkari. Based on Naseri’s testimony, plain-clothed interrogators repeatedly beat up Afkari with steel bars and made him confess to the homicide of a safety guard who had chased protesters throughout an anti-government rally within the metropolis of Shiraz in 2018. Counting on these confessions, Iran’s judiciary handed Afkari the death penalty earlier than executing him final September.
Naser’s case was final in a sequence of different unexplained deaths in Iranian jails throughout the previous few months. Solely final week, a Kurdish political activist was reportedly killed by authorities after being summoned within the northwestern metropolis of Piranshahr; another man died earlier in September after being lashed at a central jail.
Naseri’s loss of life additionally occurred days after Amnesty International sounded an alarm slamming Iranian authorities for his or her failure to convey to justice these answerable for deaths in Iranian custody.
Having documented a minimum of 72 such circumstances since 2010, the rights group said it had obtained credible experiences that these deaths “resulted from torture or different ill-treatment or the deadly use of firearms and tear gasoline.”
