Iran's president orders investigation after activists alleged police tortured man to death

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s president ordered an investigation Thursday into the death of a man in custody after activists alleged he had been tortured to death by police officers in the country’s north, the latest such fatality to gain the nation’s attention.

The order came from reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, elected last month, who campaigned on a promise to halt such deaths in custody. In 2022, the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not wearing her headscarf correctly, sparked nationwide protests.

In the latest case, five police officers have already been temporarily detained as the investigation is ongoing.

Activists identified the dead man as 36-year-old Mohammad Mir Mousavi from the city of Lahijan in Gilan province, near the Caspian Sea. They say he was arrested on Saturday following a street brawl and died on Tuesday.

Police and the government offered few details on why the authorities chose to investigate Mousavi’s death.

However, the rights group Hengaw reported that Mousavi had been detained at a police station in the neighboring city of Langarud. There, they allege, Mousavi was “severely beaten and suffered from bleeding.” They published a blurred video of what they described as Mousavi’s back after his death, soaked in blood and bearing wounds. They alleged he had been killed while his feet and hands were tied.

Mousavi “was killed under torture in the detention center of the Special Unit of the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran after being arrested,” Hengaw said. “The family of this young man has been pressured by Iranian security agencies to refrain from making this crime public.”

Hengaw identified Mousavi as belonging to Iran’s Gilak minority, who have their own language and live mainly in the northern provinces. Activists say Mousavi’s death is likely to lead to a flare-up in inter-communal tensions both in Gilan and across the country.

Deaths in security force custody have been repeatedly documented by human rights activists, particularly after years of mass demonstrations challenging the country’s Shiite theocracy. In the case of Mahsa Amini, United Nations investigators found Iran responsible for the “physical violence” that led to her death in September 2022.