Guidance Patrol or the Chariot of Death
From the protest gathering in front of Kasra Hospital to protest slogans in other parts of Tehran, from shooting at participants in Mahsa Amini’s funeral and injuring a citizen from Saqqez to the arrest of some protesters, all in reaction to the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who fell into a coma following her arrest by the Guidance Patrol and passed away.
People are extremely angry and furious about this incident, anger that is not at all tolerated by the Raisi administration. Social networks are filled with images and hashtags protesting Mahsa Amini’s death. Several rooms on Clubhouse have also been held in recent days on the subject of this incident.
Mohsen Borhani, a member of the faculty of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tehran, who also spoke in one of the Clubhouse rooms last night, explicitly and based on various legal articles, considered the nature and operation of the Guidance Patrol illegal.
He, who is also a graduate of the seminary, criticized the police statement that said a lady was guided to one of the sections of Greater Tehran Police for justification and education, where she suddenly suffered a heart attack among other guided individuals. He also tweeted, stating, ‘You have no legal right for justification and education. Summoning parents, holding classes, and changing clothes are not within your competence.’
Principlists emerged from their shell
Principlists and value-based accounts, who had almost remained silent until the release of the CCTV footage from the Vezarat detention center, considered it conclusive after its release and claimed that no fault or sin is directed at the Guidance Patrol officers and those who have targeted this institution with their attacks should apologize for their actions. For instance, Zahra Elahian, a member of parliament, claimed that Mahsa Amini had a history of heart disease and epilepsy from childhood in her medical records.
This is while Mahsa’s uncle had denied any heart or underlying disease. Elahian further claimed that the forensic medicine announced that there were no signs of physical confrontation or beating.
This is while Mahsa’s brother had reported signs of bruising on his sister’s body. A doctor on Twitter wrote that to medically investigate the cause of the disaster that happened to Mahsa Amini, help from non-governmental doctors should be sought. The joke about underlying disease and heart attack is a dirty joke.
They documented the dirty joke
However, this dirty joke seems to ultimately lead to the issuance of an official document for the cause of Mahsa Amini’s death. The principlist news agency Fars, citing its unnamed informed source, claimed that the initial forensic examination results regarding the cause of Mahsa Amini’s death show that she died due to a heart attack. The principlist Hamshahri newspaper, which fell into the hands of the principlists with the coming of the Raisi government and where Abdollah Ganji, the editor-in-chief of Javan newspaper, has moved, repeated this claim in another article.
This media wrote that an informed source said Mahsa Amini was transferred to the hospital by emergency services following a cardiac arrest and after resuscitation, she experienced cardiac arrest twice more within 2 hours and was resuscitated again. In the brain CT scan, signs indicating hydrocephalus as a previous condition were reported.
She had also undergone brain tumor surgery at the age of five and suffered from epilepsy and type 1 diabetes. She again experienced cardiac arrest on Friday afternoon and ultimately died after 45 minutes of CPR due to cardiopulmonary arrest.
Doubt in the CCTV footage
The reference to the CCTV footage by value-based currents is while a Twitter user, after a thorough review of the released footage, reached interesting information and points about the film. He noticed that the short film released by the police was edited. For example, when Mahsa enters the Vezarat building, it is still daylight, but when she is inside the hall and talking to the female officer, it has become dark. Also, in the next frame, the people inside the hall have changed and are not the same as in the previous frame, meaning a lot of time has passed that is not seen in the film.
Another point that many have mentioned is the removal or absence of a timer on the film, unlike all CCTV footage. The question that has arisen for many social media users is that we do not know what happened to Mahsa inside the Guidance Patrol van and before entering the Vezarat detention center.
Deletion of a doctor’s tweet
Mahdiyar Saeidian, a doctor and editor of the Medical Knowledge Magazine, who first announced on Twitter based on the published image of Mahsa in the hospital and the signs of bruising around the eyes and dry blood on the ear that the discussion of a heart attack is definitely ruled out and that she had gone into a coma due to a head injury.
A few hours later, he deleted his tweet and wrote that a few minutes ago, a trusted professor and colleague who was aware of the details of Mahsa Amini’s medical file contacted me and told me the details. Although my goal from the beginning was a scientific and medical investigation of this incident, I decided to delete the tweet due to the atmosphere created and the misuse by some.
I still adhere to my medical oath. Users under this tweet implicitly wrote that they understand why and for what reason he was forced to delete his previous tweet and expressed hope that nothing would happen to him.
Why does no one believe
Why does no one give credibility to the police statement? Neither do they believe the reports from informed sources of forensic medicine cited by principlist media, nor the insistence of the principlists themselves on Mahsa’s stroke and heart attack and the denial of any beating. The matter goes back to a precedent in similar cases where it was said that individuals in custody died of natural causes, it was later revealed that this was not the case.
For example, in the case of Ali Akbar Saeedi Sirjani’s death, it was said he died of natural causes. Years later, sources close to security circles at the time reported his torture and murder by security agents. In the case of Saeed Emami’s death, it was initially said he committed suicide. This narrative was questioned in official publications inside Iran from the start. Some political and security officials of the Islamic Republic also reject the official narrative.
Two weeks after Zahra Kazemi’s death, the Director-General of Foreign Press and Media at the Ministry of Guidance announced she had died due to a stroke. Two weeks later, in a special report by the presidential board, the cause of death was explicitly stated as a hard object hitting her head.
Official authorities declared the cause of death of Zahra Bani Yaghoub, a young Iranian doctor arrested by the Basij for promoting virtue, as suicide. The Bani Yaghoub family, considering the signs of beating, demanded an independent investigation, but this request was met with opposition from judicial and security institutions.
Ebrahim Lotfollahi, a law student, was arrested by Sanandaj intelligence in mid-May. 11 days later, the family was informed he had committed suicide and the body was secretly buried without family presence.
The Cyber Police arrested Sattar Beheshti. 5 days later, he was killed. Initially, it was said he died naturally and no signs of beating were seen on his body, but finally, it was announced that the most likely cause of death was shock due to a blow or blows to sensitive areas of the body or severe psychological pressures. Besides these, there are other cases too.
This article was published following the killing of Zhina Amini (Mahsa Amini) by the security police. Other reports and analyses on this matter have also been shared by Iran Gate.
- The crime of the Guidance Patrol in the Raisi administration
- The murder of Mahsa Amini and the pressure of the Ministry of Intelligence on forensic medicine
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