A protester who lost his sight after being shot during the November 2019 protests, committed suicide.
Mohsen Mahmoudi Kariani, 28, was immidiately after being shot by pellet gun on November 16, 2019, when the state security forces violently repressed protests in Kermanshah, west Iran.
Kariani who hanged himself nine months ago, was detained for months after being shot.
He lost both his eyes due to being denied medical treatment in prison.
The news is published after nine months due to the pressure of the security forces on his family.
An informed source said that after his release, the security forces promised Mr. Mahmoudi’s family that they would pay a ransom if he did not report the news to the media, but after 18 months, they did not take any action.
Mohsen subsequently hanged himself on May 5, 2021, due to financial and psychological problems.
According to the Hengaw Organization, security authorities and members of the Karian village council in Kermanshah had threatened the bereaved family in a bid to keep them silent about his suicide.
In November 2019, mass street protests broke out in hundreds of cities and towns across Iran after a sudden rise in gasoline prices. The violence of the state’s response, indiscriminate firing of live ammunition into crowds of civilians which resulted in at least 1,500 deaths (with many documented shots to the head, neck and chest, indicating lethal intent), untold injuries from gunshots, tear gas and beatings, and more than 12,000 arrests in the span of roughly a week, represented a level of state violence not seen in Iran since the 1980s. In addition, a state-imposed shutdown of the internet in Iran for approximately one week and a news blackout allowed this violence to be carried out away from public scrutiny.
Earlier, another protester identified as Reza Omidi Yarijani, 22, hanged himself in Diezelabad Prison in Kermanshah in March 2019 after being sentenced to prison.
The news of Mohsen Mahmoudi Kariani’s suicide came while the second round of hearings the Iran Atrocities Tribunal has been ongoing since Sunday.
The tribunal was established in 2020 to investigate the killing of protesters in nationwide protests in Iran in November 2019.
The tribunal investigating gross rights violations has charged 160 officials of the regime including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with “committing crimes against humanity”.
