Iran demands large payments from families of murdered protesters

After killing thousands of people during protests against the regime, the authorities in Iran are demanding hefty amounts of money from the parents of the victims if they want to retrieve the bodies of their sons or daughters who were killed. Parents of protesters shot dead during demonstrations against the regime in Tehran told BBC Persian that they received a message from the authorities stating that, if they wanted to get the bodies of their murdered children back, they would have to pay large sums.

One family, from the city of Rasht in northern Iran, reported that the authorities demanded 700 million tomans (approximately $5,500) to return the body of their son, who was killed during the protests. “The body was held at the local hospital, along with at least 70 other bodies," the parents shared. In Tehran, the family of a Kurdish construction worker who was murdered during the protests said that when they arrived at the hospital to collect his body, they were shocked when the authorities demanded a sum of 1 billion tomans (about $8,000) to release their son's body.

The parents stated, "We couldn’t afford to pay that amount, so we left the hospital without our son’s body." Some parents mentioned that hospitals are filled with security forces ensuring that the bodies of the murdered individuals will not be released without payment. Some of them also reported receiving phone calls from hospital administrators urging them to come quickly to collect the bodies of their children "before the security forces arrive and demand payment for their release." (Source)