The State Institute of Forensic Medicine has ruled out police violence in connection with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. According to the news portal Misan, the report on Amini’s death published on Friday stated that the Iranian Kurd had suffered from a thyroid disease since childhood.
The investigations are said to have shown that the previous illness after her arrest led to heart failure – which led to her death. Police violence is ruled out because no traces of a blow to the head were found on the body.
Amini’s parents had repeatedly denied their daughter’s previous illness in the past few weeks. She was perfectly healthy until her arrest by the vice squad and all claims to the contrary were false, the family said. The Iranian judiciary, in turn, accuses the Amini family of disregarding the laws in the country and wanting to use the case of their daughter to create political sentiment against the Iranian system.
The moral police arrested Amini in September because of her “un-Islamic outfit”. She went into a coma and died in hospital on September 16. The police deny using violence. The death of the 22-year-old had triggered nationwide protests against the headscarf requirement and the Islamic leadership. Security forces also used violence against demonstrators, killing dozens of people.
Elite Sharif University remains closed
After the suppression of protests at Sharif University in Tehran, the university will remain closed until further notice. “As long as concerns (about unrest) are not resolved, the university will remain closed and classes will only take place online,” said the news portal Entekhab on Friday in a press release from the institution.
However, online lessons are technically hardly possible due to the internet blocks imposed by the government. In response to anti-government protests in the country, the Iranian leadership severely restricted the internet.
Last Sunday, security forces used violence against students and professors at Sharif University. Police officers and militias sealed off the campus in the meantime. There was talk of a police attack and “civil war-like” conditions on social media. The Iranian state media had dismissed the reports as exaggerated propaganda against the system.
Since the nationwide protests began in September, students at numerous universities have also been demonstrating against the leadership of the Islamic Republic and its repressive course against women.
Baerbock: We don’t look away
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock insists on further European sanctions against those responsible for the violent crackdown by Iranian security forces against anti-government demonstrators. Those responsible for the repression should no longer be able to travel to Europe and their assets in the EU must be frozen, demanded the Green politician on Friday after talks with her Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Berlin. The Federal Foreign Office has already summoned the Iranian ambassador to Germany twice in connection with the actions of the security forces.
Baerbock said she received many letters from Iran, for example via social media, “to carry on the voice of these courageous people”. The minister emphasized: “We don’t look away when peaceful demonstrators, teenagers and some children are beaten down in the most brutal way. (…) We will not let up in our solidarity with these courageous women and men. No matter what there will be a lot of water cannons in the street or clubs being waved.” The young generation in Iran is making it clear that they will not allow their mouths to be banned. “We will therefore continue to be the voice of these people” – for example in the UN Human Rights Council.
