Kurdpa calls for an independent international investigation and for the Iranian government to be held accountable into the case of "Armita Geravand"
On Sunday, October 1, 2023, news of the "unconsciousness" of a 16-year-old girl at Tehran's Metro (Shohada Station, Line 4 of the metro) and her transfer to Fajr Air Force Hospital due to "brain injury" was reported. The teenager has been identified as "Armita Geravand " and is currently being kept in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Fajr Hospital. It is reported that she is in a "coma" state.
On Tuesday, October 3, 2023, Radio Zamaneh reported that the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Fajr Hospital in Tehran is "heavily secured" with a significant presence of "full-time security forces." Additionally, they have canceled "visits to the ICU section located on the first floor." Radio Zamaneh also mentioned in its report that precise information regarding the reason for Armita Geravand 's fall into a "coma" is not available at the moment. However, according to informed sources, which cannot independently confirm, it has been said that Armita and two other friends got into a dispute with officers who were giving them a "veil warning" while not wearing their headscarves. They allegedly "pushed Armita and her head collided with an iron object," and "a drop in blood pressure due to internal bleeding" occurred.
On Monday, October 2, 2023, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) released a portion of the CCTV footage from Tehran's Shohada Metro Square without showing the moments of Armita's entry into the station, the train, and inside the station. The decision to withhold the footage of the inside of the train and Armita's entry into the station, despite the presence of surveillance cameras, has raised suspicions about the incident and government concealment in this regard. The video of the moments of entry into the station and inside the train is crucial because some witnesses have claimed that government agents confronted Armita and her friends at these two locations due to their failure to observe compulsory hijab.
On the same day, "Maryam Lotfi," a reporter for the social section of "Shahrq Network" who had gone to Fajr Hospital to prepare a report, was detained. After an hour, Shahrq Network released news of her release with edits to the initial report, omitting the part about "she is going to Fajr Hospital to prepare a report."
On Tuesday, October 3, 2023, IRNA once again published an interview, without mentioning her name or her parents, with the parents of the 16-year-old girl. According to the mother, she says, "I think she has been under pressure," and the father says, "I don't know if she has become unconscious or how it happened." It is likely that the family is still not aware of the actual circumstances surrounding their daughter, and IRNA's report emphasizes their denial of the news about government agents' confrontation as reported by the family.
Additionally, today, the online newspaper "Faraz," which has been following Armita's situation, has reported quoting her father, "Honestly, I don't have much information about Armita's condition. I'm not at the hospital; I'm at work. It has been a few days since I have not heard anything about Armita," and "As far as I know, she is in a coma. That's all I know." However, the editor-in-chief of this magazine, "Mazyar Khosravi," after a few hours, announced the "denial and removal" of this report through X ( former Twitter).
Considering the developments that have been described regarding Armita since the incident occurred, and up to today, where there is clear evidence of the Iranian government's extensive efforts to avoid transparency in this matter, including putting Armita's parents in front of government TV cameras and pressuring them to deny the published reports, along with the detention of journalists trying to report on Armita's situation, intense security measures at Fajr Air Force Hospital in Tehran and the cancellation of visits on one floor of this hospital due to pressure, threats, and the detention of Armita's friends and parents, the Kurdish Human Rights Organization, Kurdpa considers it necessary to conduct independent international investigations to examine the details and prevent the recurrence of the Iranian government's concealment of governmental violence and crimes committed.
Given that the Islamic Republic has a long history of denying events and concealing governmental violence and crimes, with examples such as the lack of accountability in the cases of Jina-Mahsa Amini and the denial of the missile strike on Flight 752, Kurdpa demands accountability and pressure on the Iranian government regarding the incident of Armita's injury and the initiation of independent international investigations to uncover the truth and examine the details of this event. Kurdpa acknowledges that the exact cause of Armita's coma and related documents and evidence should be examined by a truth-finding committee.
Since the transparency of governmental violence within the framework of the Islamic Republic is not only possible but also the Islamic Republic places no value on transparency and making information about the atrocities that have occurred available to the public. and the government responds to any public protests against these acts of violence, which could put anyone in society at risk of death, with arrests, gunfire, and suppression. From a point where this matter has turned the citizens' protection from government violence and the disclosure of events into an impossibility, Kurdish Human Rights Organization, Kurdpa, calls for the international community to take serious international and human rights actions to shed light on the realities and the oppression imposed by the Islamic Republic against its people.
Kurdpa Human Rights Organization
October 4, 2023
