A non-lethal weapon widely used to kill protesters
With the start of nationwide protests in Iran, we have witnessed high levels of violence carried out on the streets. So significant that an overwhelming number of protesters have been killed by brutal hitting and multiple blows of batons.
No bullets were heard being fired in the major cities, and no Kalashnikov was fired, but still, the protesters who would have been the targets for those shots were silently killed and buried in the city commotion.
Initially, these instances seemed just a few, and the use of brute force by one or more security forces. But with the spread of protests and the level of violence against the demonstrators, this reality occurred on the streets of Iran.
How forces use batons as a means to kill
The Iranian regime intentionally uses batons to kill protesters in major Iranian cities and the Capital.
Usually, the forces chase the protester into an isolated alley where a group of 6-10 men attacks and beats the civilian with their batons. They strike each blow to the victim’s head, skull, and chest. Eventually, the protester dies at the spot, and there is no camera to capture it.
This method does not require a bullet; baton poundings are enough to kill the protester. Arbitrary death is accomplished in the most heinous way, through torture and suffering.
The forces then take the victim’s body hostage and threaten the family to declare the cause of death as suicide, falling from building heights, previous medical conditions, overdoses, etc., before handing over the dead body.
This method of killing protesters allows the Iranian authorities to escape accountability. As no bullets were fired, it cannot be proved that these murders were committed by state forces. But the goal of killing protesters is achieved.
This is how Iran has been managing its crackdown on city protests.
The ‘Nazi-Abad crime’ that was recorded
Only one example of such crimes was recorded completely. It has been named the ‘Nazi-Abad Crime’, showing a citizen severely beaten by a large number of security forces and ultimately shot. When the video of Nazi-Abad Crime was widely shared, it flared the reactions of Iranians and the international community. Tehran’s police chief inevitably declared, this behavior is not acceptable, and violators will be warned. Evidence shows us that such behavior is both approved and the method used by security forces against peaceful protesters. The video taken of Nazi-Abad’s crime is the only recorded document of this violent method.
32 cases of fatal clubbing with batons
Iran Human Rights Monitor has been able to investigate 32 separate cases involving protesters who were murdered by brute beatings and violent use of batons.This documentary study covers 32 fatal cases. The last case involves the brutal beating of a young girl who remains in coma. The documentary does not include cases of protesters seriously injured or arrested.
The crime committed in Nazi-Abad was repeated at least 32 other times. Unfortunately, no camera lens was able to record it. The Iranian regime has carried out this level of violence with impunity and continues to do so.It is imperative that international human rights organizations urgently seek answers from the Iranian authorities.
List of victims encountering the heinous crime
The below list includes Iranian victims who have been killed by severe baton blows in recent protests. Public and media sources have been used to compile the information. At least 10 the listed cases have not been stated in the media.
Thereby, Iran Human Rights Monitor reaches out to relevant organizations considering these crimes:
1. Nika Shakarami
Nika Shakarami, a 17-year-old protesting girl in Tehran, took to the street on September 19, 2022. She was very active in the protest scene and got killed by security forces. Security forces attempted to capture her that night. In her last call, she said the forces were after her and then she went missing. According to eyewitnesses, Nika was arrested, and her body found shattered after 10 days. Her family were able to identify the body at Kahrizak Prison.
Nika’s mother explains that something very hard was used to hit Nika from behind her head. Her cheekbones were crushed and her face squashed. It seems Nika was killed by multiple blows of batons.
2. Sarina Esmaeilzadeh
Sarina Esmaeilzadeh was a 16-year-old girl from Mehrshahr, Karaj, who was killed by severe blows of batons to her head during protests on September 21, 2022. Security forces hit her so hard in the head, she died instantly. Sarina was a smart girl who had social concerns for her people and sought freedom. She shared her views with others on her YouTube channel.
3.Arnika Ghaem Maghami
Arnika Ghaem Maghami, 17-year-old Tehrani resident joined the protests and was bludgeoned with batons to her head. She lapsed into a coma and was brain-dead for almost 10 days before she died on October 22, 2022.Security forces deliberately took her to a military hospital and forced her family to announce that she had fallen from a fourth-storey building.
4. Mehrshad Shahidi Nejad Monfared Tehrani
Mehrshad, a 19-year-old resident in Arak, was killed on October 27, 2022, during protests. He was bashed in the head with batons.
Mehrshad was a successful chef and studied to be a hotelier at the Applied Scientific University of Markazi Province. He also received championship medals in various sport fields.
One witness says, state forced chased Mehrshad as he ran away. They fired tear gas at him so he would lose balance. When he fell, seven men surrounded him beating him with their batons. They also used electric shockers on him and continued till Mehrshad made no further movement and was killed.
5. Negin Abdul Maliky
Negin Abdul Maliky, a 21-year-old student at the Hamedan University of Technology died on October 13, 2022, when battered with batons behind her head by security forces.
She returned to her dormitory seriously injured and passed away there.
6. Nasrin Qaderi
Nasrin Qaderi, 35, originally from Marivan and a PhD student in Tehran, was beaten and killed by security forces on Friday, November 4, 2022. With the injuries caused to her head, Nasrin went into a coma and died later in hospital. Her body was buried at night by security forces and without her relatives nor anybody else knowing.
7. Sina Malayeri
Sina Malayeri, a 38-year-old living in Arak, died from baton blows to his head on October 22, 2022,
He was attacked while in his car by security forces and only for honking his horn. The forces first smashed his car’s window and beat him to death.
8. Farid Malaki Azar
Farid Malaki Azar, a 26-year-old protesting in Mehrshahr, Karaj, was beaten in his head numerous times and killed on September 25, 2022.
His family had been threatened to remain silent about his death.
9. Alireza Karimi
Alireza Karimi, 20, from Islamabad-e Gharb, and a Microbiology student at Arak University, was beaten to death on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. He was struck in the head multiple times during a student protests at his university. He suffered a concussion and died.
Security forces pressured his family to say their son had committed suicide. This was the only way they could receive his body.
10. Sadaf Movahedi
Sadaf Movahedi, a 17-year-old student at the 22 Bahman High School in Tehran, was murdered on October 18, 2022, following a brutal crackdown on protests held by the high schoolers.
Security forces battered Sadaf to death with a police riot bat as she was returning home.
The blows to her head, chest, and heart caused a heart attack and brain trauma, leading to her death in a few hours.
Her family was forced to remain silent.
11. Setareh TajiK
Setareh Tajik, a 17-year-old girl who had migrated from Afghanistan, was beaten to death in Tehran on September 22, 2022, while joining protests.
She wanted to stand alongside the Iranian people for freedom.
12.Sarina Saedi
Sarina Saedi, who had just turned 16, was battered on the head to death on October 26, 2022. She was from Sanandaj and was chased down during protests with pellets fired at her. Forces buried her at night under tight security measures and pressured the family to say Sarina had committed suicide.
13.Seyed Mehdi Mousavi Nikoo
Seyed Mehdi Mousavi Nikoo, a 15-year-old who suffered several batons blown at his head before dying in Saffari St. in Zanjan on September 22, 2022.
Mehdi was also shot with a pellet gun before the fatal attack on him. His family remains under pressure from Iran’s intelligence and has not given out any news of the killing.
14.Marzieh Doshman Ziari
Marzieh Doshman Ziari was a 22-year-old student and a Bushehri native, killed on October 9, 2022, when beaten to death with batons.
She studied Commerce at the Sadra University in Shiraz to become a successful tradeswoman.
The security forces made her family say she was killed in a car accident. The forces buried her at 5 a.m. without letting the family see her for the last time.
15.Kamran Shahbazi
Kamran Shahbazi was victimized on October 2, 2022, in Tehransar, which resulted in his death.
State security forces only agreed to give his body to the family when they stated that he “died at home.”
Security officers were present at the funeral, and his family only managed to hold a ceremony in Karaj after 40 days.
16.Abbas Shafiee
Abbas Shafiee, a 43-year-old citizen in Kamalshahr, Karaj, was beaten multiple times and shot with a pellet gun from half a meter distance. He died in less than 48 hours in the hospital on November 3, 2022.
17. MohammadHossein Hajiani
Mohammad Hossein Hajiani, a 27-year-old father from Bushehr, was killed as a result of multiple hits to his head on the evening of November 11, 2022.
He was married and had a little daughter who only got to see him for one year.
18. Asra Panahi
Asra Panahi, a 15-year-old teenage girl, was beaten to death by plainclothes agents who attacked the Shahed High School in Ardabil for refusing to sing a pro-regime song.
She suffered internal bleeding and was taken to hospital. She died on October 13, 2022.
A witness states that the principal allowed the plainclothes forces to enter this girls’ high school.
19. Ehsan Khan Mohammadi
Ehsan Khan Mohammadi, 29, lived in the Hashemabad neighborhood in Tehran. He was killed during the nationwide protests on September 31, 2022, on Jomhuri Street in Tehran, with multiple beats and a direct shots to his head and neck.
20.Pegah Ghavasieh
Pegah Ghavasieh, a 19-year-old girl from Shiraz, endured a violent attack, including baton blows to her head and neck, that caused her death. The date of Pega’s death is unknown, and security forces refrained from handing her body to the family. One member of the Avasie family is currently detained.
21. Mohsen Mousavi
Mohsen Mousavi, a 32-year-old shop owner in Tehran’s Bazaar, was killed on October 8, 2022, after he was shot in the head with a pellet gun from behind. He was then attacked by security forces and viciously killed by numerous blows of batons to his head. Security officials prevented his burial to be carried out in Tehran and forced the family to a faraway city.
22.Parmis Hamnava
Parmisa Hamnava, a 14-year-old teenager from Iranshahr, Sistan & Baluchestan Province, was subjected to wild mayhem at her school on October 26, 2022. The 8th grader was beaten viciously in front of other schoolgirls after ripping out a picture of Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic rule in Iran.
She suffered internal bleeding and died in the Iran Hospital in Iranshahr.
23. Amir Hossein Mahdavi
In the event of protests held in Rasht on September 21, 2022, Amir Hossein Mahdavi was killed by the hands of security forces who battered him numerous times with batons and the end of their rifles. The family has been forced to remain silent.
24. Maedeh Javanfar
Maedeh Javanfar, a 28-year-old nurse from Rasht, was killed on October 25, 2022, when security forces beat her hard on the head.
The forces set up a fake car crash scene and made her father approve it.
25.Sajjad Jafari
Sajjad Jafari, 14, went missing during protests in October 2022 in Maali Abad, Shiraz. His parents, migrants from Afghanistan, discover the body in the Namazi Hospital morgue. Sajjad’s face was smashed, but security forces attacked the father and threatened to hand over the mother to the Taliban if they did not accept to announce his death as a cause of an accident.
26. Navid Badpa
Navid Badpa, a 23-year-old student at Varamin University, was training to become an anesthesiologist.
Navid was beaten and murdered when security forces aimed his head with wild baton blows during the protests in Tehran. He was arrested in harsh conditions and died in custody on October 24, 2022.
27. Mohammad Abdullahi
Mohammad Abdullahi, 36 and from Ilam, was arrested during protests on Wednesday, October 12, 2022. The next day his battered body was given to his father. Signs of torture and where batons had blown to his head were evident.
28.Saman Rahmani
Saman Rahmani, a 28-year-old Kurd originally from Takab, was beaten and died from multiple batons hit against his head on the evening of Friday, November 11, 2022. He was caught writing an anti-regime slogan in Qods City, Tehran.
29. Hamid Goli
Hamid Goli, a 48-year-old origin of Sanandaj, died after viciously attacked by batons in Tehran and died due to severe injuries to his skull.
30. Sina Firouzabadi
Sina Firouzabadi, from Darab in Shiraz, who was studying Computer Engineering, was killed on Monday, November 7, 2022. He was brutally stricken by batons to his head, but forces told the family he had committed suicide.
His family was told that Sina had thrown himself from the 13th floor of the dormitory.
31. Seyed Ali Araghi
Seyed Ali Araghi, a 22-year-old student who attended the College of Toronto and had come to visit his family, was killed on the evening of November 13, 2022. Security forces murdered him in Tabriz with multiple blows using their batons.
32.Hossein Abdpanah
Hossein Abdpanah, a 70-year-old citizen of Sanandaj, was killed by the security forces with batons and direct fire during nationwide protests in Baharan town of Sanandaj on November 20, 2022.
Iran Human Rights Monitor calls on the United Nations, the Security Council, and human rights bodies to create an independent investigation team to investigate the crimes committed by the Iranian government. We demand an immediate end to the brutal repression and the release of all detainees, and the removal of all charges against them.
