Javad Rouhi, a 35-year-old Iranian who was jailed after participating in the Jin, Jiyan, Azadî (Woman, Life, Freedom) nationwide protests, died suddenly on Thursday, Iran International reported.
Rouhi died after suffering a “seizure” according to the Iranian judiciary assigned to the case. The judiciary inspected the prison’s CCTV cameras, searched Rouhi’s personal possessions and conducted a post-mortem and toxicology tests before reaching their decision.
However, there are conflicting reports on the nature of Rouhi’s death. While official reports state he had a seizure at 3:45am on Thursday before being later pronounced dead in Shahid Beheshti Hospital, reports from other activists suggest Rouhi was killed by the Iranian regime.
Rouhi was arrested in September 2022 after taking part in the protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jîna Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. He received a triple-death sentence which was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Reports from Amnesty International reveal accounts of physical and psychological torture during Rouhi’s detention.
The report by Amnesty is just one of many that document the abuse suffered in Iranian prisons.
Iran executed at least 17 men for political crimes since September last year, while more than 430 people faced the death sentence for non-political crimes in 2022, according to Centre for Human Rights in Iran.