In the midst of widespread anti-dictatorship protests, Iran’s security forces are accused of killing a young YouTuber by beating her to death; however, the hardline government maintains that she committed suicide by falling off a roof.
On September 21, Sarina Esmailzadeh, 16, allegedly suffered a baton blow to the head during a demonstration in Karaj over the death of a young woman who was allegedly tortured in detention by Iran’s morality police for violating the hijab legislation in Tehran the week before.
Hossein Fazeli, the head of the justice department in Alborz Province, now asserts that the adolescent committed suicide by leaping from her neighbor’s rooftop, in suspiciously similar circumstances to those of Nika Shakarami, who is also thought to have been beaten to death by security forces and who, according to Iranian authorities, also perished in a fall. Under alleged duress, Miss Shakarami’s putative relatives also made an appearance on television to support the regime’s account of what happened.
The following day, a video purportedly showing Miss Esmailzadeh’s mother – who anti-regime activists claimed to be an actress – claiming the YouTuber was killed was released by state-controlled media in Iran. The 16-year-old has a history of aborted suicide attempts, the woman insisted again.
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