Overview
- BBC Persian reports that bodies of those killed in recent protests are being withheld in hospitals and morgues under security control until families pay roughly $5,000 to $7,000.
- Accounts from Rasht and Tehran detail specific demands in tomans for the release of relatives’ remains, sums described as unattainable for households where monthly wages often fall below $100.
- Some families were told bodies could be released without payment only if they signed statements labeling the deceased as Basij members or asserting they were killed by protesters.
- Medical staff in several cases quietly alerted relatives to collect bodies before security forces intervened, and some families forced entry to retrieve remains from morgues.
- Rights groups cite thousands of deaths and mass detentions during the crackdown, with reported fatalities ranging from more than 2,400 to 3,428 and arrests ranging from about 3,000 per Tasnim to nearly 20,000 per NGOs.