Iranians wailed amid cries of agony and confusion as they gathered next to bodies wrapped in black bags at the makeshift morgue at the Kharizak Forensic Center and lying on the ground outside the facility south of Tehran.
A video of Iran surviving an internet blackout circulated over the weekend, revealing harrowing scenes from earlier in the week. People tried to identify their loved ones among dozens of bodies inside warehouse-like rooms and on the ground outside the forensic center. They are victims of Iran’s recent crackdown on dissidents. Iran’s regime is facing its biggest challenge in years as massive anti-government protests sparked by deteriorating economic conditions have shaken the country.
Footage obtained by CNN shows a crowd gathering in front of a monitor displaying photos of the deceased, with loved ones crowding around to try to identify them. It is estimated that there are about 250 bodies in the facility, according to information on the screen and images received by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Another clip from a forensic facility shows black body bags lined up in a walkway outside a building and people gathered together. Some bodies are scattered in what appears to be the facility’s courtyard. Some are lying on unpaved ground. Families desperately search for the remains of their loved ones, some just meters from parked cars.
Activist group Mamrekate announced on Saturday that too many bodies had been taken to the forensic laboratory and were being lined up in a courtyard.
Another video recorded on Friday shows the inside of a warehouse near the forensic center. Inside the room, which has been set up as a makeshift morgue, bodies are stuffed into black bags and lined up on the floor and metal tables.
Iranian state media acknowledged the horrific scene at the medical facility, but claimed that most of the bodies seen were of “civilians” – bystanders caught up in the protests. State media blamed their deaths on “riots”.
The state-run Tasnim News Agency and the Student News Agency posted videos of scenes near the forensic science center. A state media reporter said he was at the coroner’s office and spoke to the family. The video shows conversations with grieving loved ones who told him their relatives were not protesters and had no intention of protesting.
A bereaved family member sitting on the floor next to the body in a black bag tearfully told a state media reporter that his loved one had been hit in the head by a rock thrown by someone from the roof of the building. The man says his loved one was a government supporter.
A state media reporter later told cameras that protesters who had “aimed to clash” with security forces or “may have used weapons in an attempt to seize a (military) base or something” were also among the dead.
“But most of these people are normal people, and (their) families are normal families,” he says.
The report reflects a concerted effort by the Iranian government to blame protesters for violence in the country and warn others not to take part in demonstrations. Iran has a history of violent repression by state security forces, and given testimonies emerging from the country in recent days, human rights groups say the evidence outweighs any government rebuttals.
Michael Page, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch, said Iranian authorities were responsible for the deaths and injuries of bystanders at the protests.
The Iranian government has warned its people against joining “insurgents, terrorists” and foreign-backed “mercenaries” in protests across the country. President Massoud Pezeshkian on Sunday distinguished between peaceful protesters and “rioters” who aim to “disturb society as a whole.” Iran’s attorney general has vowed to pursue ruthless legal action, including the death penalty.
But Iranian authorities have never truly differentiated between protesters and “rioters,” Page said. “They have treated any kind of mass protests as a threat to their rule and have used force in accordance with their views.”
The Iranian government defended the actions of its security forces. Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni told state television on Saturday that security personnel were “exercising maximum restraint” “to a certain extent” to avoid harm to their compatriots.
However, eyewitness accounts and human rights organizations paint a different picture. People at the scene told CNN that Iranian security forces responded to the protests with violence. Two witnesses in Tehran said security forces brandishing military rifles killed “many people” on Friday night. On the same day, an Iranian social worker who took part in protests in the capital said authorities opened fire on protesters and used a Taser on the girl’s neck until she lost consciousness. In some cases, government repression is pushing people to take more “extreme” measures, Page said, and even in those cases, deadly force is not limited to a last resort.
More than 500 protesters, including nine minors, have been killed and more than 10,000 arrested since protests began in late December, HRANA said. However, the full scale of casualties remains unclear given the government’s internet shutdown and the slow flow of information from Iran.
CNN has not been able to independently verify these figures, or figures from Iranian state media that say more than 100 Iranian security forces have been killed.
As Iran enters its sixth day of internet blackouts, the limited footage glimpsed from videos like Khalizak’s paints a bleak picture of the true scale of the human cost of dissent.
