ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - One of the lawyers representing Mahsa Amini’s family in Tehran told Rudaw on Monday that she was killed by Iranian authorities and labeled the claims that she suffered from chronic illness by police as “lies”.
Amini, also known by her Kurdish name Zhina, was detained by the controversial morality police a few days before her death for allegedly wearing an ‘inappropriate’ headscarf inside Talaqani Park in Tehran where she was walking with three female and two male relatives.
Three women were immediately given warnings for their “improper attire” however, the officers decided to only take Amini to the police station and asked one of the male relatives to go and fetch appropriate clothes for her, according to the head of Tehran police, Hossein Rahimi.
“When Zhina arrived at the morality police detention center, she stayed there for less than 1 hour and 40 minutes,” Saleh Nikhbakht a veteran human rights lawyer told Rudaw’s Ako Mohammed during a weekly radio program.
Rahimi claimed in a press conference that while the other women in the police van remained quiet, Amini seemed happy and attempted to make a few jokes.
“But all of a sudden, Zhina… collapsed and had a stroke and a heart attack and both of her kidneys stop working. By then she was brain-dead,” Nikhbakht said about the head of police’s claims.
Nikbakht said that Amini was boisterous and fit at her young age of 22 and was looking forward to soon starting her studies at Urmia University.
“All the claims that the [Iranian] establishment say about Zhina such as having chronic illness and etc. are all lies and not to be taken seriously,” he said.
Iran has been mired in 11 days of violent protests since Amini’s death on September 16, leaving at least 76 protesters dead, hundreds of others wounded, and many more detained according to figures from the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR).
In contrast to the claims by the head of the police, Amini’s cousin spoke to Sky News in an interview aired on Monday and stated that she was “tortured and insulted” during her journey in the police van.
The US on Thursday sanctioned Iran’s morality police, accusing the forces of being responsible for Amini’s death, in addition to seven senior security officials for allegedly overseeing the use of violence against “peaceful protesters.” Canada then followed suit on Monday.
Rallies have also taken place across the globe in solidarity with the protests in Iran. The European Union on Sunday condemned the “unjustifiable” and “unacceptable” use of violence against protesters in Iran, while Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador.
“The killing of prisoners in these places is not something new or limited to Zhina,” Nikbakht said, adding that since the Islamic revolution in 1979, many have died at the hands of the police. “In the past 43 years… the killing of prisoners in Iran has been widespread.”
Nikbakht said that had Amini died in the Kurdish areas and not in Tehran it would have been much easier to cover up, using claims of Kurdish separatism in her case. “If she was killed in Kurdistan they could have twisted the facts but this time they could not.”
He expressed little hope about Amini’s case receiving a fair trial as that would find authorities guilty of a crime, setting a precedent for many other such incidents.
Nikbakht said that the legal team has asked for an independent fact finding committee to be set up, as well as a medical committee to examine what truly occurred.
