Shahin Naseri

Age: 49 

Activities/Rights: Whistleblower

Status: Suspicious death in custody

Violations: Death in custody, enforced disappearance, prison exile, torture and ill-treatment, prolonged solitary confinement, access to lawyer

Shahin Naseri was a business expert who was arrested for financial crimes in September 2018 and was serving his time in Shiraz Central Prison when he bore witness to the torture of protester and wrestler, Navid Afkari in detention. In his 4-page “investigation from the witness” testimony, he described hearing Navid shouting and details witnessing two plain-clothes officers beating him. His testimony was ignored by every court at every stage of Navid’s legal proceedings. Denied access to a lawyer, due process or a fair trial, Navid had testified in court that he had been tortured to force false self-incriminating confessions which the judiciary denied after Iran Human Rights published the court documents and voice recordings. According to the recordings, Navid had requested to call Shahin as witness which was denied. Navid had also filed a written complaint on 17 September 2018 that Shahin Naseri had been threatened with reprisal if he testified in court. Iran Human Rights denounced and refuted the authorities’ claims with court documents and pointed to Shahin‘s testimony as an eyewitness with no previous acquaintance or friendship with Navid, without naming him. Following Navid’s execution on 12 September 2020, Shahin became an outspoken witness who testified in his own voice of Navid’s torture. He was transferred to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh) shortly afterwards.

On the anniversary of Navid’s execution on 12 September 2021, Shahin was transferred to solitary confinement after authorities discovered his intention to read a letter he had written to mark the occasion over the phone. Sources reported to have seen Shahin’s corpse in the prison infirmary on the morning of September 21 and that a government delegation visited the prison and his cellmates later that night after the phones were cut off. His cellmates all testified that Shahin was healthy, with no mental or health issues and would not have committed suicide. Iran Human Rights called for an independent fact-finding mission into his death after his family were contacted to collect his body the next day. In a press conference held on October 13, his cause of death was declared as drug poisoning by the judiciary, a cause which lacks all credibility according to his cellmates. Iran Human Rights continues to call for an independent fact finding mission into Shahin Naseri’s death.