Iranian Authorities Accused of Demanding Cash to Release Protesters’ Bodies

Overview

• BBC Persian–sourced reports describe security forces withholding corpses in hospital and mortuary facilities until families pay large sums.
• A family in Rasht said Poursina Hospital asked for 700 million tomans to return their relative’s body, with at least 70 other victims reportedly held there.
• Relatives of a Kurdish construction worker in Tehran were told to pay 1 billion tomans to retrieve his body, then left without him after being unable to afford the demand.
• Hospital staff have quietly urged families to collect remains before security forces intervene, while some relatives forced open a morgue to recover bodies themselves.
• At Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra mortuary, officials allegedly offered release without payment if families publicly portrayed the dead as Basij members; HRANA reports at least 2,435 people killed since late December.