The Body of Javad Rouhi Buried in Kalikan Village of Amol with Security Forces Present

After the burial of Javad Rouhi, one of the detainees from last year's protests, in Kalikan village of Amol, his brother announced a four-day mourning ceremony for him, attended by government agents. Sadegh Rouhi made this announcement on his Instagram page. According to reports from some civil activists, Javad Rouhi's body was handed over to his family 'after obtaining a commitment.' Atena Daemi, a civil activist, shared this news on X (formerly Twitter). Javad Rouhi was sentenced to three death penalties after his arrest, but this verdict was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court. Mohsen Barahani, a government-critical lawyer, emphasized through a photo of the conditions of government amnesty for acquitting protesters last February that Javad Rouhi should have been released. Ali Mojtahedzadeh, a lawyer, also held the judiciary responsible for the lives of prisoners and demanded accountability from officials regarding the 'ambiguities' surrounding Javad Rouhi's death in Nowshahr prison. The news of Javad Rouhi's death on Thursday, September 9, faced widespread criticism from human rights organizations and civil and political activists. Government agencies and news outlets provided various explanations for the reasons behind Javad Rouhi's death, including claims of 'history of seizures' and 'addiction.' Meanwhile, human rights organizations, citing the Islamic Republic's history of torture and mistreatment of prisoners, labeled Javad Rouhi's death as 'suspicious' and called for international investigations. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International separately emphasized the need for 'investigation and inquiry' into the death of this protester. Human rights activists attribute the deaths of prisoners in the Islamic Republic to torture, lack of medical care, and negligence by prison officials. Earlier, Amnesty International reported in a 2022 report that at least 96 prisoners died in the 1990s in Iran, citing 'prevention of urgent transfers or delays in transferring prisoners to hospitals' as a primary cause of their deaths. In this context, political prisoners such as Bakhtash Abtin, a poet, filmmaker, and secretary of the Iranian Writers' Association; Shahrokh Zamani, a labor activist; Behnam Mohajoubi, a imprisoned Gonabadi Dervish; Sattar Beheshti, a worker and blogger; and Shahin Naseri, a prisoner who witnessed the torture of Navid Afkari, can be mentioned. According to the Iran Human Rights Campaign, at least twenty political prisoners also died in the 1980s in the prisons of the Islamic Republic. Some of these deceased include Zahra Kazemi, Akbar Mohammadi, Zahra Bani Yaghoub, Amir Javadi Far, Mohsen Rouh al-Amini, Mohammad Kamrani, Hedi Saber, Omidreza Mirsiafi, and Ramin Aghazadeh Ghahremani. In the 1980s, a very large number of political prisoners also lost their lives due to torture, including Reza Shaltoqi, Taghi Kimanesh, and Rahman Hatefi, Kamal Ebrahimi, Nazli Ebrahimi, Mohammad Abzari, Mohammad Atashjameh, Vahid Akhlaqi, Tofiq Adib, and Parvaneh Arjomandi. Meanwhile, the Rokna website reported on forensic actions for autopsy and toxicology tests to determine the cause of Javad Rouhi's death, but did not specify when the autopsy results would be announced. Human Rights Watch called for investigations and UN intervention regarding Javad Rouhi's death. Local officials justified Javad Rouhi's death by stating he had an addiction, while political and legal activists labeled it as murder. An exclusive lawyer stated that Javad Rouhi's death was a 'deliberate and planned state murder.' Amnesty International stated that Javad Rouhi's death is suspicious and that a 'fact-finding committee' should be formed. Javad Rouhi, a detained protester, died; some users expressed doubts about the reason for his death.