07/10/2022 18:56 (act 07/10/2022 19:00)
Wave of protests following the death of Mahsa Amini ©APA/AFP
The State Institute of Forensic Medicine has ruled out police violence in connection with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. According to the Misan news portal, the report on Amini’s death published on Friday stated that the Iranian Kurd had suffered from a thyroid disease since childhood. Investigations are said to have shown that the heart failure occurred because of previous illness after his arrest.
It was said that this led to his death. Police violence is ruled out because no traces of a blow to the head on the body were found. Amini’s parents have repeatedly denied their daughter’s previous illness in recent weeks. She was perfectly healthy until her arrest by the vice squad and all allegations to the contrary were false, the family said. The Iranian judiciary, in turn, accuses the Amini family of disrespecting the country’s laws and wanting to stir up political sentiment against the Iranian system with the case of their daughter.
The moral police arrested Amini in September because of her “anti-Islamic clothing”. She fell into a coma and died in hospital on September 16. The police deny the use of violence. The 22-year-old’s death has sparked nationwide protests against the veil requirement and Islamic leadership. Security forces also used violence against protesters, killing dozens of people.
On Friday night, the Iranian military said it was ready to fight the ongoing anti-system protests in the country. This was announced by army, Revolutionary Guard and police commanders in a joint letter to Iran’s supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as reported by the ISNA news agency. “We will destroy the diabolical plans of the enemies of the Islamic Republic,” the commanders’ letter read.
According to news portal Entekhab, Sharif University in Tehran will remain closed until further notice. However, online classes are technically hardly possible due to government imposed internet blocks as the regime has severely restricted the internet.