Written by Bertram Hill, Ida Miller and Michael Simkin BBC Eye Investigations
28 minutes in the past
Image supply, Atash Shakalami
picture captionNika was simply 16 when she disappeared throughout a protest towards Iran’s strict gown code for ladies
An Iranian teenager was sexually assaulted and murdered by three males working for Iranian safety forces, based on leaked paperwork presupposed to have been ready by Iranian safety forces.
This allowed us to map what occurred to 16-year-old Nika Shakarami, who disappeared from an anti-regime protest in 2022.
Her physique was found 9 days later. The authorities claimed she dedicated suicide.
We have introduced the report’s allegations to the Iranian authorities and the Revolutionary Guards. they did not reply.
The report, marked “confidential,” summarizes public hearings into Nika’s case held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the nation’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the safety power that protects the nation’s Islamic regime. It lists the names of her killers and the senior commanders who tried to cowl up the reality about her.
It comprises disturbing particulars about what occurred at the back of the masked van the place safety forces had been holding Nika. These embody:
One of the boys sexually abused her whereas sitting on high of her. Despite her handcuffs and restraints, she fought again, kicking and cursing. She admitted that this provoked her males to hit her with their batons.
With so many faux official Iranian paperwork in circulation, the BBC spent months verifying each element utilizing a number of sources.
Our in depth investigation has proven that the paperwork we’ve obtained report the final actions of this teenage boy.
Nika Shakarami’s disappearance and demise had been extensively reported, and her photograph grew to become synonymous with Iranian ladies’s wrestle for larger freedom. As avenue protests unfold throughout Iran within the fall of 2022, crowds shouted her identify, livid on the nation’s strict guidelines on necessary veiling. [hijab].
People round her chanted “Death to the dictator” in reference to Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Khamenei.
What she had no means of figuring out on the time, a confidential report reveals, was that she was being watched.
In a letter to the Revolutionary Guards’ high commander, it mentioned it was based mostly on in depth consultations with the forces that cracked down on the protests.
Several secret safety forces that had been monitoring the demonstration start to elucidate the paperwork.
One of the teams, Team 12, mentioned it suspected {the teenager} had “poor management expertise attributable to his unconventional conduct and repeated calls on his cellphone.”
The group despatched one in all their operatives into the gang posing as a protester to substantiate that Nika was certainly one of many leaders of the demonstration. He then known as in a group to arrest her, based on her report. But she ran away.
Her aunt beforehand instructed BBC Persian that Nika known as a buddy that evening and instructed him she was being chased by safety forces.
Almost an hour handed earlier than she was discovered once more, at which era she was taken into custody and positioned within the group’s automobile, an unmarked refrigerated van, the report mentioned.
Nika was within the rear compartment with three members of Team 12: Arash Kalhor, Sadegh Monjazy and Behrouz Sadeghi.
Team chief Morteza Jalil took the lead with the drivers.
The group then tried to discover a place to take her, the report states.
They tried a short lived police camp close by, however had been turned away as a result of it was too crowded.
So they drove 35 minutes to the detention heart, the place the warden initially agreed to confess Nika. But then he modified his thoughts.
“The accused [Nika] He was continually swearing and chanting,” he instructed investigators within the report.
“There had been 14 different feminine detainees within the station on the time, and my understanding was that she may probably upset the opposite feminine detainees.
“I used to be frightened she would begin a riot.”
According to the report, Morteza Jalil once more sought recommendation from Revolutionary Guard headquarters and was instructed to go to Tehran’s infamous Evin jail.
Along the way in which, he mentioned he began listening to crashes behind him coming from the again compartment of the pitch-black van.
The paperwork comprise testimonies from the boys who had been guarding Nika within the rear, giving us an thought of what he was listening to.
One of them, Behrouz Sadeghi, mentioned Nika was turned away by the detention heart and as quickly as she was returned to the van, she started cursing and screaming.
“Arash Kalhor gagged her mouth with a sock, however she started to wrestle. Then Sadegh [Monjazy] I laid her down on the chest freezer and had her sit on it. “The state of affairs has calmed down,” he instructed investigators.
“I do not know what occurred, however after a couple of minutes she began swearing. I could not see something, all I may hear was preventing and punches.”
But Arash Kalhor revealed much more chilling particulars.
He says he briefly turned on the flashlight on his cellphone and noticed Sadegh Monjazy. ”[has] I put my hand inside her pants. ”
Arash Kalhor mentioned he then misplaced management.
“He doesn’t know…who he’s. [was doing it]however he heard…the sound of the baton hitting the defendant. [Nika]… “I began kicking and punching and I actually did not know if I used to be hitting my buddy or the defendant.”
However, Sadegh Monjaj refuted Arash Kalhor’s assertion and mentioned his motive was skilled jealousy. Although he denied placing his hand in Nika’s pants, he mentioned he couldn’t deny that whereas he was sitting on her he grew to become “excited” and touched her buttocks.
This prompted Nika to scratch herself although her arms had been tied behind her again, inflicting her to fall as a result of impression.
“She kicked me within the face and I needed to defend myself.”
From the passenger compartment of the van, Morteza Jalil instructed the motive force to drag over.
He opened the again door and found Nika’s physique.
He mentioned he eliminated blood from her face and head as she was “not in good situation”.
This follows the circumstances by which Nika’s mom mentioned she finally discovered her daughter within the mortuary and Nika’s demise certificates, obtained by BBC Persian in October 2022, confirmed “a number of wounds from blows with onerous objects.” This displays the circumstances by which he was listed as having died.
Team chief Morteza Jalil admitted he had not tried to determine what occurred.
“I used to be simply fascinated with how you can transport her, and I did not ask anybody any questions. All I requested was, ‘Is she respiration?’ I feel it was Behrouz Sadeghi who answered, “No, she is lifeless.” ”
Ahead of his homicide, Jalil known as the Revolutionary Guards headquarters for the third time.
On this event, he spoke to a senior officer codenamed Naeem 16.
“There have already been deaths in our station and we did not need that quantity to rise to twenty,” Naeem, 16, instructed investigators. “She would not have solved her issues by taking her to her base.”
He instructed Jalil to “throw her out on the road.” Jalil mentioned he left Nika’s physique in a quiet avenue beneath Tehran’s Yadegar-Emam freeway.
The report concluded that the sexual assault led to a struggle within the again compartment of the van and that Team 12’s assault prompted Nika’s demise.
“All three batons and three Tasers had been used. It is unclear which blow was deadly,” the report states.
The report contradicts the federal government’s rationalization of what occurred to Nika. Almost a month after the funeral, state tv broadcast the outcomes of an official investigation that discovered Nika died by leaping from a constructing.
CCTV footage confirmed an individual claiming to be Nika getting into the house, however Nika’s mom instructed BBC Farsi in a phone interview: “Under no circumstances ought to we all know that the individual is Nika.” I am unable to verify that.”
The BBC Eye investigation centered not solely on the contents of the report, but additionally on whether or not it might be trusted as an artifact.
In some circumstances, what seems to be official Iranian paperwork or different supplies circulating on the web seems to be cast.
However, most of those cast paperwork are simple to identify, as they clearly deviate from official formatting, embody incorrect spacing and letter headings, and comprise important grammatical and spelling errors. can do.
For instance, it might comprise an incorrect official slogan or brand for the 12 months of its origin, or an anachronistic title for a authorities company or division.
Another indicator is language that doesn’t conform to the very particular type that tends for use in Iranian public establishments.
The paperwork on which we centered our investigation contained a number of such discrepancies. For instance, the “Naja” police power cited within the report was recognized on the time as “Farah.”
Therefore, to additional take a look at the authenticity of the doc, we handed it on to a former Iranian intelligence officer who has seen a whole lot of respectable paperwork.
Using the official code issued each day to senior Iranian intelligence officers, he known as the Revolutionary Guards’ archives to search out out whether or not the case file presupposed to comprise this report actually existed. I then confirmed the contents.
He obtained affirmation that that is the case and that the report quantity exhibits it’s a part of a 322-page case file on 2022 anti-government protesters.
I am unable to be 100% positive, however this gave me confidence that it was actual.
His distinctive entry to the IRGC additionally helped resolve one other thriller: the id of Naeem 16, the person who instructed the group to dump Nika’s physique.
The former intelligence agent did this by making one other cellphone name, this time to somebody inside Iran’s navy institution. He was instructed that Naeem 16 was the decision signal of Captain Mohammad Zamani, who served within the Revolutionary Guards.
His identify is listed as a type of current on the five-hour public listening to into Nika’s demise that the report summarizes.
We have submitted this criticism to the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian authorities. they did not reply.
As far as we all know, the boys accountable for Nika’s demise weren’t punished.
Image supply, social media
picture captionNika and her sister Ayda (R), who can be at the moment beneath arrest
The clue as to why that is so is within the doc itself. All Team 12 current on the listening to are listed within the report, with the group they belong to, Hezbollah, listed to the appropriate of their names.
This refers back to the Iranian paramilitary group Hezbollah, which isn’t associated to the Lebanese group of the identical identify. Its members are utilized by the IRGC however, because the report acknowledges, typically function outdoors its jurisdiction.
“As the above-mentioned people belonged to Hezbollah forces, it was not attainable to pursue this case with out acquiring the mandatory commitments and safety ensures,” the report mentioned.
Meanwhile, Naeem, 16, an worker of the Revolutionary Guards, has been given a written reprimand, it added.
A complete of 551 protesters had been killed by safety forces in the course of the Women, Life and Freedom motion in Iran, most of them by gunfire, based on a UN fact-finding mission.
The protests subsided after a number of months following a bloody crackdown by safety forces. After that, there was a lull within the actions of Iran’s ethical police, however a brand new crackdown on violations of Islamic gown codes started earlier this month.