Iranian police kill 17-year-old boy from feet away during protest | Abroad

A day after the protest, Abolfazl Adinazadeh’s parents were called to pick up their son from the police station. When they arrived, they found he was dead. Authorities have not yet commented on the teen’s death. Abolfazl’s father looks for answers, but does not find them. At his son’s funeral, he said, “What crime had he committed that you sprayed his stomach with 24 bullets?”

Iranian police also attended the funeral and asked grieving relatives to remove videos of the ceremony from their phones. His parents were pressured to claim the teen was a member of the Basij, an Iranian militia, to suggest he had been killed by protesters. In reality, Abolfazl joined a demonstration in the city of Mashhad on October 8.

The many protests started after the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa, 22, died after being arrested for wearing her headscarf incorrectly. Protests have been going on for weeks now and rights groups have said at least 200 have been killed. Among these victims are often young people.

The spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday that the violent response by the security forces against protesters is not abating. In addition, she said reports of arbitrary arrests and the killing and detention of children were “deeply disturbing”. “According to some sources, as many as 23 children have been killed by live ammunition and fatal beatings in at least seven provinces. A number of schools were also raided and children have been arrested by security forces.”