Visitor Representative from Evin: There is No Video of Sina Ghanbari's Suicide

One of the Iranian parliament representatives who was part of a group visiting Evin prison in connection with the arrests during the protests of December has stated that the video described as the 'suicide video' of Sina Ghanbari, one of the detained protesters, does not contain scenes of suicide. Eleven members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, after some representatives emphasized the necessity of visiting the detainees from the December protests in Evin prison in Tehran, finally visited Evin on January 30. Following this visit, the head of the Judicial Commission reported that the 'suicide video' of Sina Ghanbari was shown to the visitors. Sina Ghanbari, a 22-year-old from Tehran, is one of the detainees from the protests, and news of his death in prison was later published. Alireza Rahimi, the visiting representative from Evin, wrote on his Telegram channel that Mr. Ghanbari spent six days in the previous execution location of the prison as a suspect. He was then granted bail; 'he stated he has no addiction and was therefore kept in the section for healthy and clean individuals.' According to Mr. Rahimi, in the video shown to the representatives, on January 6 at 3 AM, an individual, identified as Sina Ghanbari, enters one of the restrooms while holding a long, twisted black plastic bag in his right hand. After that, 'the restroom area is recorded for a very long time without any event or movement until about two hours later when one of the prisoners enters directly into the same restroom where Sina went and is confronted with the scene of a body lying on the ground, returning in a state of shock and disbelief.' Mr. Rahimi stated that a number of prisoners then attempted to revive him using chest compression methods. Ultimately, Sina Ghanbari's body was handed over to the forensic doctor at 7 AM. This representative from Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly emphasized that the video has been mistakenly referred to as the 'suicide video,' while there is fundamentally no video that depicts the manner of death. In another part of his note, Alireza Rahimi mentions that 'through investigations from his cellmates and also individuals at his residence, prison officials have concluded that he had previously consumed nerve pills and, according to his cellmates, signs of restlessness were evident in him.' According to Mr. Rahimi, even 'assuming this suspect committed suicide, whether it was possible to prevent the suicide or not can only be definitively stated after reviewing the case and documentation.' Following the December protests in various cities in Iran, and after reports of the deaths of several detainees in custody, a group of parliament representatives requested to visit Evin prison. Some representatives had warned of concerns about a 'second Kahrizak.' It took three weeks for the judiciary to agree to this visit. Mr. Rahimi wrote on his Telegram that the representatives ultimately succeeded in 'talking with a few remaining detainees.' In addition to the ambiguous death of Sina Ghanbari, reports have also emerged regarding the deaths of Vahid Heydari and Shahab Abtahi Zadeh in Arak, Mohsen Adeli in Dezful, Saro Ghahramani and Kianoush Zandi in Sanandaj. Meanwhile, judicial officials of the Islamic Republic claim they 'committed suicide' or that their deaths were unrelated to the protests.