“Suspicious Death” of Witness to Navid Afkari’s Torture in Tehran’s Solitary Cell

Iran’s Human Rights Organization reported the “suspicious death” of Shahin Naseri in solitary confinement at Tehran’s main prison. Naseri’s brother confirmed his death but stated that no official has contacted them regarding his brother’s death so far.

On Tuesday, September 21 (September 30 in the Persian calendar), Iran’s Human Rights Organization reported that informed sources in conversation with the organization informed them of the suspicious death of Shahin Naseri, a witness to Navid Afkari’s torture.

Shahin Naseri’s brother confirmed his death but stated that officials have not yet contacted them.

According to Iran’s Human Rights Organization, Shahin Naseri was exiled to Tehran’s main prison after testifying about Navid Afkari’s torture, and has been living in solitary confinement for some time.

Babak Paknia, Shahin Naseri’s lawyer, wrote on his Twitter page that his client had no contact on Tuesday and cannot confirm or deny the news of his “death.”

Paknia wrote: “I have no information about the published news and do not know if he really died or not; everyone I contacted has no definitive news; I even spoke to his brother who said they received the news of death from fellow inmates, but Shahin told me yesterday that he is not in the cell; my information is limited to this extent.”

Iran’s Human Rights Organization wrote that “an informed source” told the organization that they saw Shahin Naseri’s body in the prison clinic.

This source also emphasized: “It is possible that the prison organization wants to declare his death as suicide. But Mr. Naseri was neither a depressed person nor someone with a mental problem who would want to commit suicide. He had a wife and children and was hopeful about his future. He did not have any particular illness that would cause him to die due to illness.”

Shahin Naseri’s Testimony About Navid Afkari’s Torture

Navid Afkari was executed on September 22, 1399 (September 12, 2020) in Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz. Various reports of his torture to extract forced confessions were published, but Iran’s judiciary, while denying Afkari’s torture, said that he confessed under normal circumstances.

But at the same time, the voice of Shahin Naseri, who at that time was serving his sentence for non-political crimes in Shiraz, was released, as a witness to Navid Afkari’s torture, refuting this claim.

Shahin Naseri, who was a commercial expert, in the “witness interrogation” form described the details of a day when he saw Navid Afkari “during torture” in Shiraz.

Based on these four pages of testimony, Shahin Naseri said that when he was in the Shiraz intelligence office, he heard Navid Afkari’s screams and witnessed the scene of him being beaten by two plainclothes officers.

Navid Afkari Sangar, a 27-year-old Shirazi wrestler, along with his two brothers Vahid and Habib and another young man named Saeed Dashti, were tried and convicted on charges of “active participation” in protest movements in Mordad month 1397 (August 2018) in Shiraz.

Navid Afkari was executed in Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, but his last words before execution were recorded.

This wrestler, among other things, spoke about his torture: “They would pull plastic over my face and bring me to the brink of suffocation and death. My hands, stomach, and legs were severely beaten with batons and hard objects, and I was repeatedly insulted with insulting and vulgar words. They would tie me tightly and pour alcohol in my nose.”

Source: DW