Overview
- Local police in Aligudarz say Omid Sarlak, in his twenties, died from a self-inflicted gunshot in a car and have ordered a forensic review.
- Family members and mourners at his November 3 burial rejected the suicide finding, with his father recorded saying, "they killed my champion."
- Sarlak’s Instagram story showed him burning a portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set to the deposed shah’s audio, and the video triggered new posts torching leaders’ images.
- State-linked outlets IRNA and Tasnim reiterated the suicide account and called murder claims disinformation, while opposition media and users reported pressure on the family to accept it.
- No independent determination of cause has been published, rights monitors warn of intensifying repression, and Mint reports the U.S. State Department issued a condemnation.