IRAN: Student activist murdered under torture

Keramatollah Za’erian IRAN: Student activist murdered under torture NCRI, 12 January 2013  - A student activist has been murdered under torture by agents of the Iranian regimes’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), a students’ news website reported on Friday, January 11, 2013. Keramatollah Za’erian, 27, was studying theatre directing at Tehran University.  Prior to his last arrest in November, he had been arrested three times for his active participation in 2009 uprisings. One month after the arrest, after killing him under torture, the MOISagents took his body to his residence in Tehran. They placed Keramatollah’s corpse in bathtub and left the hot water running. Four days later, the neighbors noting the water leaks and odor, contacted the fire department.   Keramatollah’s body was decomposed to an extent that was difficult to identify or transport. The medical examiner’s report described the cause of death to be severe torture and spinal cord injury.  Tehran’s Ministry of Intelligence offered the student’s family large sums of money to not to file a lawsuit. Keramatollah’s family was told that he had insulted the Supreme Leader and that it was a favor that they return his body to them. The MOIS agents have warned the student’s family that they were not allowed to make any statements or contact the media abroad.