Protester ‘suicides’ stir anger and calls for accountability
TEHRAN, Iran — Two of the detained young men killed themselves, and another was a terrorist who died in a clash with security forces, Iran’s government officials have declared with finality. But in an extraordinary display of audacity, many Iranians, including a number of lawmakers and a top entertainment star, have assailed such conclusions.
The three young men were among more than two dozen Iranians who died in the wave of anti-government protests that swept the country a few weeks ago, the most serious unrest to confront the Islamic republic’s political-religious hierarchy in nearly a decade.
The men’s personal stories that have since emerged have struck a nerve among many Iranians, who see glaring contradictions in the official accounts of the facts.
Their push for further investigation, including a parliamentary demand for an inquiry into the prison deaths, suggests that while the protests have largely subsided, the fallout in Iran may be just beginning.
“This news of so-called suicides is making people angry; they demand answers,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani.
It is unclear whether the anger signals a potent new complication for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who as Iran’s supreme leader was a target of some of the protests, which began over economic grievances and quickly broadened.
But the willingness by members of mainstream Iranian society to publicly repudiate the narrative of the top judicial authorities is unusual in this country of 80 million, where such behavior can be risky and invite retribution.
Iran’s judicial authorities, in an update Sunday about the aftermath of the protests and government response, said 25 people had died and nearly 4,000 had been arrested. They also said that hundreds had been released, including 500 in Tehran.
The national prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, told a news conference in Tehran that “none of the bullets” found in those killed had matched types used by Iran’s law enforcement officers and military. Those who died in detention, he said, had “committed suicide.”
Rouhani, who has defended the right of peaceful protest, on Sunday appeared to lend support to the doubters of such claims.
He extended his rebukes of hard-liners over the protests after an influential Friday prayer leader called the protesters “garbage.” The prayer leader, Kazem Sadighi, later retracted his words.
Rouhani called upon the establishment to listen to the protesters, not demean them.
“We cannot call everybody who takes to the streets dirt and dust, cow, sheep or trash,” he said in a speech broadcast on state television. “What manner of talking is this? Why do we insult? Why do we treat our society impolitely?”