By way of Bertram Hill, Aida Miller and Michael SimkinBBC Eye Investigations 30 April 2024Image supply, Atash ShakaramiImage caption, Nika was once simply 16 years outdated when she disappeared right through protests towards Iran’s strict get dressed code for womenAn Iranian teen was once sexually assaulted and killed by way of 3 males operating for Iran’s safety forces, a leaked report understood to were written by way of the ones forces says. It has allow us to map what came about to 16-year-old Nika Shakarami who vanished from an anti-regime protest in 2022.Her frame was once discovered 9 days later. The federal government claimed she killed herself. We put the record’s allegations to Iran’s authorities and its Innovative Guards. They didn’t reply.Marked “Extremely Confidential”, the record summarises a listening to on Nika’s case held by way of the Islamic Innovative Guard Corps (IRGC) – the protection drive that defends the rustic’s Islamic established order. It comprises what it says are the names of her killers and the senior commanders who attempted to cover the reality. It incorporates irritating main points of occasions at the back of an undercover van wherein safety forces have been restraining Nika. Those come with:Some of the males molested her whilst he was once sitting on herDespite being handcuffed and restrained, she fought again, kicking and swearing An admission that this provoked the lads to overcome her with batonsThere are a large number of faux Iranian professional paperwork in stream, so the BBC spent months checking each and every element with a couple of assets.Our intensive investigations point out the papers we got do chronicle {the teenager}’s remaining actions.Nika Shakarami’s disappearance and dying have been extensively reported, and her image has grow to be synonymous with the battle by way of girls in Iran for higher freedoms. As side road protests unfold throughout Iran within the autumn of 2022, her title was once shouted by way of crowds livid on the nation’s strict regulations at the obligatory veil [hijab].In Nika’s case, her circle of relatives discovered her frame in a mortuary greater than per week after she disappeared from a protest. However Iran’s government denied Nika’s dying was once attached to the demonstration and, after carrying out their very own investigation, stated that she had died by way of suicide. Others round her chanted “dying to the dictator” – regarding Iran’s Preferrred Chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. What she may now not have identified on the time is that she was once being watched, because the categorised record makes transparent.Addressed to the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, it says it’s according to intensive talks with its groups that policed that protest.Tracking the demonstration have been a number of undercover safety devices, the report’s account starts.It says any such – Workforce 12 – suspected {the teenager} “of management, because of her unconventional behaviour and repeated calls together with her cell phone”. The workforce despatched one in every of its operatives into the group, posing as a protester, to substantiate Nika was once certainly one of the most demonstration’s leaders. Then, consistent with the record, he referred to as in his workforce to arrest her. However she fled.Her aunt had prior to now instructed BBC Persian that Nika rang a pal that evening to mention she was once being chased by way of safety forces. Virtually an hour handed earlier than she was once noticed once more, says the record, when she was once detained and put within the workforce’s automobile – an unmarked freezer van.Nika was once within the rear compartment with 3 Workforce 12 contributors – Arash Kalhor, Sadegh Monjazy, and Behrooz Sadeghy.Their workforce chief Morteza Jalil was once up entrance with the driving force. The crowd then tried to search out someplace to take her, the record says. They attempted a brief police camp within reach however have been became away as it was once overcrowded. In order that they endured to a detention centre, a 35-minute force away, whose commander to start with agreed to confess Nika. However then he modified his thoughts. “The accused [Nika] was once repeatedly swearing and chanting,” he instructed investigators for the record. “At the moment, there have been 14 different feminine detainees on the station and my belief was once that she may agitate the others.”I used to be nervous she would reason a rebel”. Morteza Jalil as soon as once more contacted his IRGC HQ for recommendation, says the record, and was once instructed to move to Tehran’s infamous Evin Jail. En direction, he stated he started to listen to crashing noises in the back of him coming from the pitch-dark rear compartment of the van. We all know what he was once listening to, from the testimony defined within the report from the lads guarding Nika within the again. Considered one of them, Behrooz Sadeghy, stated once she were put again into the van after being rejected by way of the detention centre, Nika had began to swear and shout. “Arash Kalhor gagged her mouth along with his socks however she began suffering. Then Sadegh [Monjazy] laid her at the chest freezer and sat on her. The location calmed,” he instructed investigators.”I have no idea what came about, however after a couple of mins she began swearing. I could not see anything else, I may handiest pay attention combating and bashing.” However Arash Kalhor gave additional chilling main points. He says he in brief became on his telephone torch and noticed Sadegh Monjazy “[has] put his hand inside of her trousers”.Arash Kalhor stated after that they misplaced regulate. “He does not know… who [was doing it], however he may pay attention… the baton hitting the accused [Nika]… ‘I began to kick and punch however actually did not know if I used to be hitting our guys or the accused.'” However Sadegh Monjazy contradicted Arash Kalhor’s observation, which he stated was once motivated by way of skilled jealousy. He denied hanging his hand in her trousers – however stated he may now not deny that he become “aroused” whilst sitting on her and touched Nika’s buttocks. He stated this provoked Nika – in spite of the reality her fingers have been tied in the back of her again – to scratch him and jolt in order that he fell over. “She kicked at my face, so I needed to protect myself.” From the van’s cabin, Morteza Jalil ordered the driving force to drag over. He opened the rear door to find Nika’s useless frame. He stated he wiped clean the blood from her face and head – “which have been now not in a just right situation”. This echoes the state wherein Nika’s mom says she sooner or later discovered her daughter within the mortuary, and Nika’s dying certificates – got by way of BBC Persian in October 2022 – which states she was once killed by way of “a couple of accidents led to by way of blows with a troublesome object”. Workforce chief Morteza Jalil admitted he did not attempt to to find out what had came about. “I used to be handiest fascinated about switch her and did not ask any questions of any individual. I handiest requested: ‘Is she respiring?’ I feel it was once Behrooz Sadeghy who replied, ‘no, she is lifeless’.”With a killing on his fingers, Jalil referred to as the IRGC’s HQ for a 3rd time. In this instance, he spoke to a extra senior officer, codenamed “Naeem 16”. “We already had deaths in our stations, and I did not need the quantity to upward thrust to twenty,” Naeem 16 instructed the investigation. “Bringing her to the bottom should not have solved any issues.” He instructed Jalil to easily “unload her in the street”. Jalil stated they left Nika’s frame in a quiet side road underneath Tehran’s Yadegar-e-Emam freeway. The record concludes {that a} sexual attack led to the battle within the rear compartment of the van, and that moves from Workforce 12 had led to Nika’s dying. “3 batons and 3 Tasers have been all used. It isn’t transparent which one of the most blows was once the deadly one,” it says. The record contradicts the federal government’s narrative of what came about to Nika. Just about a month after her funeral, state tv broadcast the result of the professional investigation, which stated Nika had jumped to her dying from a development. It confirmed CCTV of an individual it claimed was once Nika getting into an condominium block, however Nika’s mom instructed BBC Persian in a telephone interview that she may now not “underneath any cases, ascertain that individual is Nika”. “Everyone knows that they’re mendacity,” Nasrin Shakarami later instructed a BBC documentary, discussing government’ claims in regards to the deaths of protesters. The BBC Eye investigation was once now not simply excited about the content material of the record, however whether or not it might be depended on as an artefact. From time to time, what seem to be professional Iranian paperwork and different fabrics circulating on the net are discovered to were faked.These kind of counterfeit paperwork, on the other hand, are simple to identify as a result of they obviously diverge from professional formatting – appearing misguided spacing and letter headings, or containing important grammatical or spelling mistakes. They may additionally come with the unsuitable professional slogan or emblem for the yr they purport to originate from, or an anachronistic identify for a central authority company or division, as an example.Some other indicator is language that doesn’t fit the very particular taste that has a tendency for use by way of Iranian professional our bodies. The report our investigation centred on contained a couple of such inconsistencies. As an example, the “Naja” police drive quoted within the record was once referred to as “Faraja” on the time.Subsequently, to additional check the report’s veracity, we gave it to a former Iranian intelligence officer who has observed loads of legit ones.He rang the IRGC archive – the use of an professional code issued on a daily basis to senior intelligence officials in Iran – to test if the case report this record was once allegedly a part of actually existed and what it was once about. He gained affirmation that it did, and that the record’s quantity confirmed it was once a part of a 322-page case report on anti-government protesters in 2022. Whilst we will by no means be 100% positive, this gave us self belief that it’s authentic. His distinctive get admission to to the IRGC additionally helped us iron out every other thriller – the identification of “Naeem 16”, the person who instructed the workforce to offload Nika’s frame.The previous intelligence officer did this by way of making every other name – this time to somebody inside of Iran’s army equipment. He was once instructed Naeem 16 is the decision signal for a Captain Mohammad Zamani, serving within the IRGC.That title is indexed as one of the most attendees on the five-hour listening to into Nika’s dying that the record summarises. We put the allegations to the IRGC and the Iranian authorities. They didn’t reply. The boys answerable for Nika’s dying weren’t punished, as far as we all know.Symbol supply, Social mediaImage caption, Nika together with her sister Aida (R) who has herself now been arrestedA clue as to why that may well be the case will also be discovered within the report itself. All of Workforce 12 – who have been on the listening to – are indexed within the record and to the fitting in their names is the crowd to which they belong: “Hezbollah”.This refers to an Iranian paramilitary team, Hezbollah, unrelated to the Lebanese team of the similar title. Its contributors are utilized by the IRGC however occasionally function out of doors its jurisdiction, because the record turns out to recognize: “Because the above individuals belonged to the forces of Hezbollah, following up this example past acquiring the essential commitments and safety promises has now not been imaginable,” it says. IRGC officer Naeem 16, then again, was once given a written reprimand, it provides. As many as 551 protesters have been killed by way of safety forces right through Iran’s Girl, Lifestyles, Freedom motion, maximum of them by way of gunfire, consistent with the UN’s fact-finding venture.The protests subsided after a couple of months because of the bloody crackdown by way of safety forces. There adopted a lull in process by way of Iran’s morality police, however a brand new crackdown on breaches of the Islamic get dressed code started previous this month.
