Iran rejects allegations of assault and murder of young protester in 2022 – World

This Thursday, the Iranian judiciary rejected information released by the BBC that a young protester had been sexually assaulted and killed by members of the Revolutionary Guard during the 2022 protests.

This vast movement, which shook Iran for several months, was triggered by the death, on September 16, 2022, of the young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, aged 22, three days after being detained by the morality police for violating the strict dress code of the Islamic Republic.

On September 20, Nika Shakrami, 16, disappeared after participating in one of the demonstrations in Tehran. The body was found a week later.

At the time, Iranian authorities stated that she had committed suicide by jumping from a building, denying any link between her death and the demonstrations, but the BBC reported this week that the teenager had been sexually assaulted and killed after being detained by members of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.

“BBC World’s so-called investigative report on Nika Shakrami showed that this media outlet […] is not a means of communication committed to truth and reality,” the Iranian judicial system’s press agency, Mizan Online, said today.

The investigation, continues Mizan Online, shows that the BBC “did not pay and is not paying attention to the most fundamental principle of documented reporting, namely the possibility of verifying and validating sources and documents”.

The Iranian judicial report, which contains photographs and documents from Tehran’s forensic medicine organization, rejects allegations of sexual abuse and insists that the teenager committed suicide.

Hundreds of people were killed, including dozens of members of the security forces, and thousands of others were arrested during the 2022 protest movement.

Authorities spoke of “riots” fomented by Israel, Iran’s declared enemy, and Western countries.

Nine men were executed in Iran in cases related to the protests, including murders and other acts of violence against security forces.