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Politics

16-Year-Old Iranian Crackdown Victim “Silently Buried At Night”

January 5, 2023
Maryam Dehkordi
2 min read
Reza Kazemi,16, was hit by several bullets fired by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Reza Kazemi,16, was hit by several bullets fired by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Reza, who was living with his parents and younger brother in the small town of Mochesh, in Kurdistan Province, died after being hospitalized for six days.
Reza, who was living with his parents and younger brother in the small town of Mochesh, in Kurdistan Province, died after being hospitalized for six days.
16-Year-Old Iranian Crackdown Victim “Silently Buried At Night”

IranWire received a video on November 21 that showed the body of a teenage boy lying on the ground covered in blood and a crowd around him calling for an ambulance.

The person who sent the video said that Reza Kazemi,16, was hit by several bullets fired by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Reza, who was living with his parents and younger brother in the small town of Mochesh, in Kurdistan Province, died after being hospitalized for six days.

The teenager is one of the many victims of a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests sparked by the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of morality police. The security forces have killed more than 500 people, including dozens of children, and detained over 18,000, human rights activists say.

The demonstrations and state clampdown have been particularly intense in the country’s western Kurdish areas and the eastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, home to a Sunni Baluch minority.

An informed source told IranWire that armed forces set up checkpoints across Mochesh on November 21 as the surrounding towns were crowded with angry protesters.

"Security forces stopped Reza and his friends' car at around 8 p.m. and started questioning them. Reza recognized one of the agents who was a resident of the town. He got out of the car and raised his hands up as a sign of surrender. He called the agent by name and said, 'Hey, I’m Reza, son of Hasan’,” the source said.

At that moment, the security forces fired at the teenager, who was hit by four bullets that reached his palm, elbow, shoulder and chest.

“And then they left him there and went away,” according to the source.

As the gunshots rang through the city, residents gathered around Reza’s body. He was in a coma when he arrived at a hospital in the provincial capital, Sanandaj, where he was taken to the intensive care unit.

Reza died of his injuries on November 27.

"Reza Kazemi's family, like all the families of those killed in these protests, came under pressure from the security agencies. They were told they would be given the body on the condition that they would bury him in silence the same night,” the source said.

Reza's family silently took the body to Mochesh and buried it at night.

"His brother has dropped out of school, and his father swears 1,000 times a day that his son was innocent and did not even participate in the protests, but nothing has so far been done to bring his killers to justice."

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