Iran protests: Teenage mother Nika Shahkarami denies her daughter fell from the building

Abu Dhabi
CNN
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.’s mother Nika Shahkrami, A 16-year-old protester who was found dead in Tehran last month said her daughter was killed by Iranian security forces in one of the protests.

In interviews with Iran’s Etemad newspaper, BBC Persian and in a video message published by US-funded Radio Farda, Shahkerami’s mother, Nasrin Shahkarami, rejected official explanations that her daughter had fallen from the roof.

“It is clear that my daughter was in the protests and was killed there,” Nasrin Shahkerami said, in an interview with the independent Iranian newspaper Etemad.

He removed the interview credentials from his website on Tuesday.

Nika Shahkrami’s death comes amid ongoing nationwide protests against a regime accused of corruption and suppressing dissent with arbitrary arrests and even mass executions.

The protests initially erupted with the death of another young woman, maha aminiAfter she was detained by the morality police in September.

The Iranian government said Neka Shah Karami was found dead on September 21 after closed circuit television footage showed her entering a building in Tehran, and authorities publicly concluded that she had died after falling from the roof of the building.

Mohammad Shahriari, head of the criminal prosecution in Tehran province, said that Shah Karami’s injuries are consistent with his fall, citing an autopsy that revealed multiple fractures in the pelvic region, head, upper and lower limbs, hands and feet, according to pro-state Tasnim. .

He added, “The investigation showed that this incident was not related to the protests. No bullet holes were found in the body and the marks on the body show that the person was killed by falling.”

Tasnim said that eight workers in the building she allegedly entered were arrested.

But Nasreen Shahkrami refutes these official accounts. She said that her daughter’s body was injured only in the head and the rest of the body is in good condition, in Radio Farda’s video.

She also denied that the girl who appears entering the building in the video surveillance cameras is her daughter.

“No one can prove that this is Nika. A shadow was recorded on the camera and the girl is wearing a mask and it is not clear what we see in these pictures. I don’t think this is Nika,” Shahkrami told Etimad.

Nika Shahkerami disappeared after participating in a protest in Tehran, according to her mother, who confirmed that her daughter could be seen in footage on social media of the protest.

“I watched this video and the young woman in the video is Nika,” Nasreen Shahkrami told Etemad.

Nine days after her disappearance, she said, police showed Shahkerami photos of her daughter’s corpse in Kahrizhik mortuary, according to Radio Farda.

Although pro-state media have cited other family members supporting the idea of ​​Nika Shahkrami’s death following her fall, her mother claims that these statements were “forced” by the authorities.

On Wednesday, Iranian state media broadcast a report in which Atash Shakarami, the aunt of Nika Shahkarami, told a reporter that the girl died after falling from an apartment building, which supports the government’s account of the girl’s death.

in a report Iran State broadcaster Atash Shah Karami said her niece was found in the backyard of the building after she fell. The aunt said she was shown pictures of where Nika had fallen and wanted to know where she had fallen.

Neka’s uncle, Mohsen Shahkrami, was also seen in the IRIB report condemning the protesters and saying “We do not support any actions that harm public property.”

Nasreen Shahkarami said Iranian security forces had arrested his aunt and uncle and forced them to make a false statement, according to BBC Farda and Radio Farda.

Shahkrami told BBC Persian that her brother had been threatened not to speak out or his wife and 4-year-old son would be arrested.

They put them under extreme pressure to make a false confession and broadcast it on TV. Shah Karami said in a video tape provided to Radio Farda that (security forces) are doing everything in their power to exonerate themselves.

The UN human rights office told CNN Thursday that it had “received reports that authorities forced Nika Chakarami’s family to give a television interview, broadcast on October 5, that she died after falling from a building.”

“We call for an end to harassment and threats against the families of the victims and those who demand accountability,” a UN human rights spokesperson said in a statement.

CNN has reached out to family members for comment.