LONDON: Security forces in Iran have shot dead a 17-year-old boy in the city of Mashhad, BBC Persian reported on Thursday.
Abolfazl Adinezadeh joined an anti-government protest on Oct. 8 instead of attending school and was reportedly shot at point-blank range.
Adinezadeh’s death certificate, obtained by the BBC, listed liver and kidney damage caused by birdshot as the reason for his death.
A doctor was cited as saying he was fired at from less than 1 meter away.
The teenager’s parents did not initially know what had happened to him after he participated in protests and were told by education ministry officials to pick him up from a local police station on Oct. 9.
However, on arrival they were informed of his death and warned against talking to the media.
“You zip your mouth and do not talk to media,” Adinezadeh’s father was reported to have been told at the police station.
The family was allegedly pressurized to say their son was a member of the Basij, a notorious paramilitary force involved in the violent crackdown on protests that have erupted in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who fell into a coma after being detained by the country’s morality police.
Iranian authorities have accused what they describe as “rioters” backed by the country’s foreign enemies of killing Basij members and other security forces during ongoing demonstrations.
“What crime had he committed, that you sprayed his stomach with 24 birdshot?” Adinezadeh’s distraught father asked at his funeral, a video showed.
Mourners at his funeral who wanted to express their anger were reportedly told to be quiet by plainclothes security personnel who attended.
The boy’s aunt held up a picture of him over his grave, but a female agent snatched the frame and put it under her hijab.
Some mourners who had recorded the funeral were stopped afterward and told to delete the footage from their phones.
Adinezadeh’s mobile was not returned to his family.
The teenager was known to make people smile and enjoyed dancing. Each day after school he worked at a shop fixing mobile phones.
Around 244 protesters, including 32 children, have been killed by security forces in the crackdown on protests, Iran’s Human Rights Activists News Agency said, adding that more than 12,500 others had been detained.
