Iran Body Count

This space has been created to show the violence and deliberate killing of people in Iran after the presidential elections on the 12th of June 2009. Principally it is dedicated to the victims of shootings and people tortured to death in detention centres. If you have any information on these cases, please send them to iranbodycount@gmail.com. If you do not wish, we will not publish names and sensitive details.

این وبلاگ به منظور نشان دادن گوشه ای از خشونت و کشتار حکومت غاصب جمهوری اسلامی در دوره انتخابات است ۲۲ ذخرداد مخصوصا برای قربانیان بعد انتخابات و کسانی که در تیر اندازی ها به صورت رحشیانه ای از دست رفتند نظرات خود را می توانید به این آدرس ارسال کنید و کسنی که مایل به چاپ مشغخصات خود هستند بی نام و نشان چاپ می شوند از حضور گرم شما سپاسگزاریم
iranbodycount@gmail.com.

8/28/2009

Abbas Disnad

The photo of Abbas Disnad has been published. First it was not really sure, he was mentioned by some reformist sources during a commemoration of martyrs and he was inserted in the list earlier. Source for example here.
He was a shopkeeper, murdered by heavy blows to his head, Azadi Avenue, Tehran. He was 40 years old.

Mohammad Javad Parandakh

On "Etemade Melli" reformist website there is the news about the death and burial of Mohammad Javad Parandakh, a postgraduate student of petrochemistry in Esfahan. He died in custody after arrested in a demonstration. He was buried in Gilane Gharb, province of Kermanshah.

8/27/2009

44 nameless bodies buried in Beheshte Zahra cemetery

In the recent days 44 nameless dead were buried in the Beheshte Zahra cemetery south of Tehran, in the section 203 of the cemetery. Source: LA Times, August 23

Video with a text in english here, telling the bodies were completely frozen, pieces of ice.

An Iranian lawmaker vowed Saturday to examine allegations that dozens of unidentified people killed in the recent post-election unrest were secretly buried last month in the country's largest cemetery.

The reformist website Norooznews.org on Friday cited an unnamed employee of the capital's Behesht Zahra cemetery as saying that 44 unidentified corpses were buried July 12 and 15 amid heavy security.

Majid Nasirpour, a reformist lawmaker who serves on the parliament's Social Affairs Committee, filed a request for an inquiry, reported the website Parlemannews.ir.

"This news story needs to be verified," he told the website Saturday. "I will ask the committee to investigate the allegations."

The number of those killed during the weeks of violence that followed the disputed June 12 presidential election is a source of controversy: Iranian officials say that as few as 20 died, nine of whom were pro-government militiamen. Iranian opposition figures say that at least 69 have been killed, and Western officials in Tehran estimate the number of dead nationwide to be in the hundreds.

Norooznews, the online incarnation of a respected newspaper shut down by authorities in 2002, said it had obtained the registration numbers of the burial permits to back up its report. The website previously reported that bodies were piled up at a mortuary in southwest Tehran.

Iranian authorities have made a concerted effort to downplay the numbers and accounts of those killed during the unrest, pressuring families not to hang mourning banners on their homes and ordering mosques not to allow memorial services.

Nonetheless, mourners Thursday night marked the 40th-day burial anniversary of Sohrab Arabi, a 19-year-old who was apparently shot in the chest during a June 15 demonstration and whose whereabouts was unknown for almost a month.

They took to the streets and chanted political slogans in the expansive Tehran apartment complex where his family lives, videos posted to the Internet showed.

8/20/2009

Amir Mirza

This story has been sent to me from a private source.
This young man is an other victim of torture and horrible treatment of people during and after the post-election riots. On one of the last days of June he was badly wounded by Basijis and forcibly arrested near one of the main squares in Tehran, and then sent to prison, accused of several crimes including rioting, spying and plotting to overthrow the regime during the massive street demonstrations and acting as an agent against national security. Supposedly he was identified from a newspaper photograph.

After being tortured and beaten for three days, he was finally released on a high bail paid by his family.

Unfortunately he died some days later (due to complications of internal lung bleeding and meningitis). Even though he was denied the medical treatment he was detained again and tied up on the floor naked till he died while "checking his documents" by security forces at the hospital. His body was kept there but finally delivered to his home when his family paid a huge amount of money and under strict conditions and agreements.
(story shortened)

8/15/2009

Alireza Davoodi

There are news about the death of Alireza Davoodi. He was 26 years old and died in a hospital of a suspicious heart attack. He is not a victim of the recent riots, he was an Accounting student in Esfahan University who had been expelled from the university for his political activities (labour rights and women's rights).

On February 12, 2009, Mr. Davoudi was detained by Intelligence agents in his residence in the city of Shahin Shahr in Esfahan, and he was released on a 100,000 USD bail bond on April 26. During Mr. Davoudi’s incarceration, he was subjected to psychological pressures by Intelligence investigators. Twenty days ago, Mr. Davoudi was hospitalized with severe depression, and he died on Monday, July 27. Medical staff declared the cause of his death as heart attack. Source.

8/14/2009

Ramin Ghahremani

The photo of Ramin Agha Zadeh Ghahremani has been published here.

Ramin Ghahremani was released from jail 15 days after his initial arrest, with visible signs of torture on his body. After his release, he told his mother that he was hanged by his feet for several days and took severe blows to the head. Ramin Ghahremani was admitted to the Milad Hospital after his release and passed away there. One of Ramin Ghahremani’s relatives told Rooz, “At the hospital they told us that Ramin’s skull is broken, but after his death security officers took him away and returned his body to his family four days later.”

According to this relative, the Ghahremani family was barred from holding a simple memorial at their house and are under heavy pressure to refrain from granting any interviews or disseminating information. Source Rooz online.

8/05/2009

New Names: Mohsen Moradi, Hassan Kazemini, Abbas Disnad

On his list Saeed Valadbaygi is giving some new names of victims, for the moment I cannot find other sources:
Mohsen Moradi (unknown location and date of death)
Hassan Kazemini (19 years old Tehran)
On "iranrevolution.wordpress.com" there are other entries:
Abbas Disnad (very scarce information, except that he is mentioned between the martyrs in a commemoration invitation and his grave should be located in the same lot as Neda Agha Soltan's)

UPDATE: there were rumors about a 12 years old boy, killed during the commemoration of Neda and other martyrs 40 days after their death, anyway it seems that it is an older case and it is not possible to verify that he is actually one of the martyrs.
Please post me any sources if you find anything. Thank you.

8/04/2009

Pooya Maghsood Beigi

It seems that this is the name of a new victim. People are twitting that he was arrested in Kermanshah on June 20th and received extreme torture, was release from prison and died two days later. He was a medical student at the Kermanshah Medical Sciences University, and his mother Zahra (Behjat) Norouzi was arrested after wrapping her body in clay and staging a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Intelligence’s office in Kermanshah the first days of August.

8/03/2009

The number of the killed could be even around 365

Rooz Online, today, August 3, in English,
in Persian: تعداد کشته ها ممکن است تا 365 نفر باشد

A few days after the closure of the Kahrizak detention facility for “sub-standard” conditions, speculations continue about the closure of this facility. Everyday, new dimensions are revealed about the secret conditions of this horrific facility, where many individuals arrested after protesting the election results were beaten and tortured to death.

In this connection, a senior advisor to Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Alireza Beheshti, said yesterday in an interview with the official website of the minority faction in the Majlis that the number and fate of those detained in Kahrizak remain unknown. Beheshti said, “Based on some information that we have received (and still remain unsure about their reliability), a large number of individuals held at the Kahrizak facility were transported to Isfahan two days prior to the facility’s closure.”

Noting that his source of information is “remarks by the families of detainees,” Ayatollah Beheshti’s son commented on the number of recent detainees: “About 1700 names have been gathered, but that does not certainly include everyone; nor do we know how many of those who are detained are alive.”

Also announcing that there are “no exact statistics” of the number of those killed during protests and while in detention, Behesthi said, “I heard the number 365, but if we announce a figure now that is higher than the actual number, we would be accused of waging psychological warfare.”

Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s senior advisor said, “We have information that some of the people who were previously arrested as thugs and violent criminals are now used to guard the detainees.”

Alireza Beheshti also said about those who carry out interrogations are various jails such as the Kahrizak facility, “Other than thugs, some of them belong to various government institutions. Some belong to the Basij. Some are plain-clothed officers that cannot be counted as members of the Basij. Some belong to the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps’ intelligence unit.”



Khatami’s Reaction

Two days before the remarks of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s special representative at the joint reformist committee to investigate detainee conditions, former Iranian president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami blasted the government and reacted to the Kahrizak facility’s closure.

The reformist former president blasted government authorities’ statements regarding the closure of the Kahrizak facility due to sub-standard conditions, asking, “What does sub-standard mean? Does it mean, for instance, that its air ventilations did not work, or that the washrooms were dirty? No! Crimes have been committed; lives have been lost, and behaviors have been conducted against dear men, women and the youth. If such things transpire at foreign prisons, everyone would be enraged. These issues must be addressed today.”

Seyyed Mohammad Khatami also demanded legal action against those who arrested, tortured and murdered the detainees, noting, “The perpetrators of such behaviors and actions must legally tried, and the rights and reputations that have been violated must be restored.”

8/02/2009

Behzad Mohajer

Behzad Mohajer - بهزاد مهاجر

He was a 47 years old gentleman, whose corpse was handed over to his family from Kahrizak's morgue, 1st of August, (10 Mordad 1388), source in Persian. He was arrested June 15 (25 Khordad) in a demonstration.