Mehrdad Taleshi, a Kurdish 21 Year Old “Killed in Police Custody,” Say Family

According to Iran Human Rights, Mehrdad Taleshi, a 21-year-old Divandareh native in the Kurdistan region, has died while in the custody of the Shapour criminal investigation department police station.

His relatives have told IHR: “On Wednesday (3 February) at 6:30 in the morning, they transferred his corpse to the Baharloo Hospital in a Shapour police ambulance. There were torture marks around his neck and severe marks of injury on his head. It is clear that they had struck him hard on the head.”

Mehrdad Taleshi, son of Khosrow, was a 21-year-old Divandareh native who was arrested at 5pm on 1 February 2021 along with another man by the Tehran 13th District’s police patrol. Half an hour later, he was taken to 115 police station and transferred from there to the Shapour police station at 9:30pm. Two days following his arrest, he was died while in the custody of the Shapour criminal investigation department police station. The identity of the male arrested with Mehrdad has not been established at the time of writing.

Mehrdad Taleshi was denied the right to contact his family throughout his detention.

Officials at the police station told Mehrdad’s family that the reason for his arrest was “being in possession of seven grams of marijuana.” This is while according to his family: “Mehrdad was an athlete and didn’t even smoke cigarettes. As his family, we still don’t know why they killed him and what the reason for killing him was.”

Hospital officials initially wanted to return Mehrdad’s body to his family without an autopsy, but was sent for an autopsy after being met with his family’s protests. Following the autopsy, the body of the young Kurdish man was returned to his family on Saturday, February 6 and was laid to rest amidst heavy security presence the next day.

The informed source told IHR: “The outcome of the forensic exam has not yet been determined and the complaint lodged by the Taleshi family to the Criminal Court has yet to be acknowledged.”

It should be noted that the Shapour criminal investigation department police station is notorious for the routine torture of prisoners which has been covered in countless reports over the years.