The mother of deceased blogger Sattar Beheshti is calling for her son’s body to be exhumed for further investigation, after Iran’s chief coroner’s office announced that his death was not the result of blows he suffered during interrogation.
Gohar Eshghi told Saham News: “I am informing the court and top judiciary officials that I request the exhumation and investigation of Sattar’s body under the supervision of physicians trusted by the public and the United Nations.”
She stressed: “If they insist that he was not killed under torture, why have they not answered why his shroud was bloody? Why his face was bruised? Why they did not give us the body? Why they put us under such pressure? Why they subjected us to such threats? Why they forced me into giving consent?”
Beheshti, a blogger who posted critical views of the government, was arrested by the Tehran Cyber Police in October of 2012; authorities announced that he was dead a few days later.
Some prisoners who saw Beheshti in between his transfer to different prisons claim he was tortured and was in fear of his life as he was being taken for questioning.
The family has filed a suit against certain members of the cyber police, and the coroner’s final report has now been forwarded to the judiciary to make its final decision about the case.
