Inspection Organization Confirms Pepper Spray Use Against Asiyeh Panahi

The head of the State Inspection Organization confirmed the mistreatment of Asiyeh Panahi by municipal officials after she died shortly following the demolition of her home. He states that the officials did not have a court order to demolish the shelter of this marginalized woman from Kermanshah.

The news of the death of Asiyeh Panahi, a 61-year-old woman who died shortly after resisting the demolition of her family’s shelter, received widespread coverage in media and social networks, leading to the removal of three Kermanshah municipality managers and their detention.

About two weeks ago, enforcement officers from the Kermanshah Municipality visited the area to demolish several homes that marginalized residents apparently built without permits in the Sejadiyeh neighborhood, and demolished a number of houses, including a small room where Asiyeh Panahi and her family lived.

Hamshahri newspaper reported, citing eyewitnesses, that municipal officials and their supporting forces became violent during clashes with Asiyeh and other marginalized residents who resisted the demolition of the homes, and used pepper spray.

One witness said that Asiyeh Panahi, who suffered from respiratory illness, could not “endure” the pepper spray. Following this incident and while being transferred to the “Cheshmeh Sefid” camp, she lost her life.

Ayatollah Hasan Darwishian, head of the State Inspection Organization, says that as soon as they learned about the demolition of Ms. Panahi’s residence and her family’s shelter, inspectors from this organization and the Kermanshah judiciary began investigating and examining the case.

Without Court Order, with “Unauthorized Pepper Spray”

According to ISNA news agency, Darwishian said on Monday, June 12, regarding the results of these investigations: “Municipal officials lacked a court order for demolition and used unauthorized pepper spray to break the resistance of the deceased so that she would not prevent the demolition of the shack.”

He says the land on which the Panahi family’s room was built is endowment property and part of green space, and construction on it was unauthorized in every way, “but the conduct of municipal officials with this woman and some of her relatives who were present at the site is unacceptable.”

According to Darwishian, for this reason, arrest warrants have been issued for the officials involved in this incident. Parviz Tavassoli-Zadeh, Chief Justice of Kermanshah Province, said on the sixth of Khordad on the sidelines of a visit to the site that following Asiyeh Panahi’s death, the head and deputy head of enforcement at the Kermanshah Municipality have been arrested. Apparently, another municipality manager has also been arrested in connection with this case.

The head of the State Inspection Organization says municipal officials cited a general court order from one of the supervisors of the Kermanshah Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office that was issued last year for one year to justify their actions, but this order was solely issued to prevent unauthorized construction and not for demolition, and this is one of the charges against the arrested officials.

Land Encroachment with a Shack?

Gholamreza Shahbazi, director of enforcement at the Kermanshah Municipality, said on the fourth of Khordad in an interview with the state IRNA news agency that regarding the demolition of Ms. Panahi’s residence and her family’s shelter, the officials “encountered a shack that was created in the direction of land encroachment while performing their duties.”

Contrary to this claim and according to published images, Ms. Panahi and her family’s residence was a small room built with cement blocks. Also, in one of the images, Asiyeh Panahi sat on the bucket of a bulldozer to prevent the demolition of her room, and it is unlikely that a bulldozer would be used to demolish a shack.