Mother of teen protester found dead in Tehran denies daughter fell from building
The mother of Saeed Malekpour, the daughter of a pro-democracy activist gunned down with a shotgun in Tehran recently, made her first statement since her daughter was killed and blamed the shooting to the “opposition media,” which she accused of portraying the shooting as an act of Iranian protesters “reoccupying” their own demonstrations.
“It seems Saeed may have committed suicide,” Malekpour’s mother, Faezeh Malekpour, told RFE/RL on Tuesday.
Rights group the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the incident, and urged all countries to put a stop to the use of firearms in protests and demonstrations.
A photo showed Saeed lying down on the pavement, with a white sheet wrapped around her head, and her arms around her body. Her legs were folded like she was sleeping, her hands were limp.
Her body was covered in a thin blanket, her expression was not visible.
The UN’s World Committee Against Drones and Armed Violence (WCADVA) noted that the incident is reminiscent of the use of drone technology in Saudi Arabia against its own citizens, including the beheading of journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this year.
“Today, we are seeing a form of a similar killing in the Iranian streets as we move into the era of a new authoritarianism,” said Lisa Barrett, director of the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) condemned the shooting.
“We are deeply saddened and outraged to learn that a pro-democracy activist has been killed in Iran by police officers after her protest against the recent election fraud in this country,” wrote the UNODC in a statement.
The UN also noted that “Iran’s police have arrested dozens of protesters since the beginning of the year, including
