TEHRAN: Lawyers for Mahsa Amini’s family have rejected an official Iranian medical report that found her death was not caused by beatings, they said in comments published on Thursday.
Amini, 22, died on September 16, three days after falling into a coma following her arrest in Tehran by the morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Three days after her death, Amini’s father Amjad, told Iran’s Fars news agency that she had been in “perfect health.”
In its report published on October 7, Iran’s Forensic Organization said her death “was not caused by blows to the head and vital organs and limbs of the body.”
“The lawyers rejected the forensic doctor’s report in their statement of defense,” one of the lawyers acting for the parents, Saleh Nikbakht, told Etemad newspaper.
The parents called for “the re-examination of the cause of death by another commission in the presence of doctors” who are confidants to the Amini family.
“Without clarifying the investigation process and the role of the person or persons involved in the arrest and transfer of Mahsa to the morality police headquarters, it is not possible to defend the rights of the parents, and... to resolve the ambiguities about the cause of death,” Nikbakht added.
Last month, Amini’s family filed a complaint against the police who arrested her and called on the authorities to release all photos and videos taken during her detention.
According to Nikbakht, the chief prosecutor had promised “that a medical team appointed by the family would be informed of the course of the investigation.”
The family called on the judiciary to “invite five neurosurgeons and neurologists, a cardiologist and a psychiatrist to choose from a list of 10 doctors nominated by Mahsa Amini’s parents,” according to Nikbakht.
Family rejects official Iran findings on Amini death: lawyer
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Family rejects official Iran findings on Amini death: lawyer
- Three days after her death, Amini’s father Amjad, told Iran’s Fars news agency that she had been in “perfect health”
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
