The parents of a 16-year-old boy, who was allegedly killed during a protest in Iran, have issued a desperate plea to find the person who “emptied 24 bullets into his stomach”.
In a video, Ali Adinezade, the father of Abolfazl Aindezadeh, asked why his son was killed and urged anyone with footage of the incident to send it to him.
Numerous protests have been taking place across the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the nation’s morality police for allegedly breaking the Islamic Republic’s strictly enforced dress code.
Iranian officials have insisted she was not mistreated in custody, and said she died of a heart attack.
According to Mr Adinezade, his son was killed near an underpass while taking part in a protest in Mashhad – the second most populated city in Iran.
“I just want to know what sin my child had committed that you emptied 24 bullets into his stomach,” he said in the clip posted on the messaging app Telegram.
“The people who were there, apparently in the direction of the Bahonar underpass, the Park Roundabout underpass, there they did this to my son.”
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Clutching a photo of Abolfazl, and sitting beside his wife, Mr Adinezade added: “I want the killer to be introduced to me and face me. I plead with the people who have clips of that scene, please send it to us.”
After acknowledging those who had offered their condolences, he said everyone, particularly youths and school children, have “suffered” as a result.
“Everyone mourned with us. I just want to know who the murderer is,” he pleaded.
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More than 200 people killed, activists claim
Activists claim Iranian security forces have already killed more than 200 people and arrested thousands in an ongoing crackdown on the wave of demonstrations.
The protests are the most serious in the repressive country since 2019, when dissent erupted over a government hike in the price of petrol.
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Many Iranians have taken to the streets in an act of defiance against the Islamic Republic’s heavy-handed policing of dissent and the morality police’s increasingly violent treatment of women.
Around the world, women have been cutting their hair in solidarity with Iranian women and protests have been taking place in several countries.
