Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

The policeman approaches a young man whose hands are tied to a bar, strikes him with a shock device, and says, "Don't swear.” The man falls to the ground, but the attack with the shocker continues.

The name of this man is Mehrdad Sepehri. His family told BBC Persian, which first published a video of him on October 24, that police in Mashhad had shot pepper spray at him and that Sepehri had died of suffocation during the attack.

The publication of the video provoked a wave of reactions online, with many using the hashtag #Mehrdad_Sepehri to protest against the mistreatment of citizens by police.

Iran’s George Floyd

On May 25, 2020, an African-American named George Floyd died in Minneapolis after a police officer pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for eight minutes during his arrest.

Following widespread protests in the United States and in many parts of the world, officials of the Islamic Republic also responded, with the local media widely reporting the story.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said at the time: "The fact that an American policeman calmly puts his knee on a black man's neck and presses, [causing] him to die, while others sit quietly and a few policemen stop and watch and do nothing, is not something new; this is American nature."

President Hassan Rouhani added to this: ”It does not matter to us whether the person killed in the United States was a Muslim or a Christian or an American or a non-American; we sympathize and express our condolences for all the American people who are on the streets because of the brutal murder of a black American by the American police,” he said.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif went further. In addition to calling the "knee-to-neck" a tactic favored by the United States, he slammed Europe for being silent in the heat of protests over the killing of George Floyd.

At the time, Persian speakers on Twitter and other social media also commented widely on the incident. Five months on, they are comparing the death of Mehrdad Sepehri to that of George Floyd.

“Let's see what justice and accountability mean this time"

Although high-ranking officials in the Islamic Republic have not reacted to the news, police commanders have been forced to comment.

"A case has been filed in the Khorasan Razavi military prosecutor's office, and the family of the deceased has also filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office," said Mehdi Akhlaghi, the military prosecutor of Khorasan Razavi province, where Mashhad is located.

"The Deputy Military Prosecutor of Khorasan Razavi, after attending the forensic medicine tests during the autopsy, has ordered a lung biopsy to verify the effect of the spray on the death of the deceased,” Mehdi Akhlaghi added.

However, according to lawyer Hassan Younesi, the lawyer acting for Habib and Vahid Afkari and on the case of their brother Navid, who was executed in September, the agent accused of killing Mehrdad Sepehri has not been arrested. Younesi said in a tweet: "In Navid's case, they arrested him based on evidence that only showed Navid's presence in that area. But when the accused is an agent and the victim is an ordinary and homeless citizen, there is no news of arrest."

"The police are pursuing what is allegedly called the pepper spray poisoning in enemy networks," said Mohammad Kazem Taghavi, the Khorasan Razavi police chief. He announced that the police officer had been summoned. "The matter will be investigated immediately and the results will be announced later."

However, people on social media were skeptical, saying the latest official "investigation" was an example of a typical response from authorities, suggesting that it would not uncover anything and that the truth would remain elusive.

Human rights activist Roya Boroumand tweeted in response to statements by judicial officials that the Mashhad murder was being pursued: "Then [they will] threaten the family not to file a complaint, or to withdraw their complaint, or transfer the agents to other sections, or give them a short prison sentence and then release them ... We have seen all sorts of such measures. Let's see what justice and accountability mean this time."

In another recent case, a video was released of a woman being beaten in Abadan and assaulted by an intelligence security guard at the city's refinery. Over the last week, judicial officials have vowed to take action following widespread reactions to the footage. Then, prior to the trial, some local media outlets rushed to take a "confession" from the woman, as people reported on Twitter. A video attributed to her was quickly released, the main purpose of which appeared to be an attack on the "foreign media." She says in the video: "I do not know what the foreign media is saying because they took my phone and I do not know what is happening ... I do not need anyone to support me from anywhere."