Suspicious death of a student activist in detention

Iran Human Rights, January 20: Following the suspicious death of the student activist Ebrahim Lotfollahi, while he was in detention, several human rights activists have raised the question whether Mr. Lotfollahi was murdered. Ebrahim’s brother, Esmaeil Lotfollahi told the website Rooz Online, "his brothers grave was blocked by cement" and that "the family doesn’t believe that Ebrahim committed suicide, as the Iranian authorities have claimed"

Iranian authorities should investigate the sudden deaths of two people while in custody in northwestern Iran, org/english/docs/2008/01/18/iran17819.htm" class='spip_out' rel='external'>Human Rights Watch said today.

Ebrahim Lotfallahi, 27, died in the detention center in Sanandaj sometime between January 9 and January 15. Zahra Bani-Ameri, a 27-year-old female physician, died in October while in custody in the town of Hamedan. In both cases, officials claimed the cause of death was suicide.

"The sudden death in detention of two apparently healthy young people is extremely alarming," said Joe Stork, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch. "The government only heightens our concern by quickly dismissing them as suicides."

On January 15, officials from the detention center contacted Lotfallahi’s parents and informed them that they had buried their son in a local cemetery. The officials claimed that Lotfallahi had committed suicide in his cell.

The family told Human Rights Watch that they plan to ask the authorities to exhume the body for a forensic determination of the cause of death.

The death in custody of Bani-Ameri also occurred under suspicious circumstances. On October 12, 2007, police and security forces arrested Bani-Ameri and her fiancé in a public park in the city of Hamedan on charges of having an "illegal relationship." According to Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, "immoral" relationships between men and women who are not married may be subject to criminal punishment.

On the following day, prison officials informed Bani-Ameri’s family that she had committed suicide in her cell. In statements at the time to the Iranian press, Bani-Ameri’s brother claimed that she had seemed fine during telephone conversations he had with her, including a call 30 minutes before the time of her reported death