London/The 16-year-old Iranian Nika Shakarami, found dead in 2022 after participating in an anti-government protest, was sexually assaulted and murdered by three men linked to Iran’s security forces, according to a document to which the BBC has had access.
The British public broadcaster revealed this Tuesday that it obtained a report marked “highly confidential” supposedly prepared by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which summarizes the young woman’s case and identifies her three alleged murderers as well as to the commander who covered it up.
The BBC says that, after months of verifications, it has been able to draw some conclusions from what happened to the teenager, whose death in September 2022 the Government of Tehran described as a suicide.
The leaked document contains “disturbing details of what happened in the back of an unmarked van where security forces restrained Nika,” the station notes.
According to this, “one of the men abused her while he was sitting on her,” after which the girl, “despite being handcuffed and restrained, fought back, kicking and cursing.” This led the three men to Taser her and beat her with batons.
“One of the men abused her while he was sitting on top,” after which the girl, “despite being handcuffed and restrained, fought back, kicking and cursing.”
On the day of the event, the internal report reflects that the so-called ‘team 12’ of the security forces considered her suspicious during a protest on September 20 of that year demanding freedoms for women, and tried to catch her, but she fled.
An hour later they found her and put her in an unmarked refrigerated van, with the group’s leader, Morteza Jalil, in the cabin and agents Arash Kalhor, Sadegh Monjazy and Behrooz Sadeghy inside.
According to the text, they first tried to leave the young woman, who did not stop screaming and defending herself, in a detention center, but it was full. Khalil finally asked the IRGC headquarters for instructions, which ordered her to be taken to Evin prison.
According to the document, one officer put his socks in her mouth to stop her screaming, and another sat on her, touching her private parts, to which she resisted and was then hit repeatedly.
Hearing a lot of noise, Jalil asked the driver to stop the van and, when he opened the back door, he found the young woman dead, as he testified in this report.
He then called headquarters again and a commander nicknamed ‘Naeem 16’ told him to abandon the body on the street, since they had already accumulated too many in the detention centers.
‘Naeem 16’ was identified by an expert consulted by the BBC as captain Mohammad Zamani.
The station points out that the captain received a written reprimand but instead believes that the members of ‘team 12’ could not be punished, as they do not belong directly to the IRGC but to the paramilitary group Hezbollah (different from Lebanon) that often works for the Iranian secret services.
Nika Shakarami’s death caused consternation in Iran and abroad and her image became emblematic of Iranian women’s fight for greater personal freedoms, including in dress.
The feminist demonstrations followed the death on September 16, 2022 of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died from injuries contracted while she was in police custody for not wearing the veil properly.
