Mourners chanted “Demise to Khamenei” as they attended the funeral of Omid Sarlak, a person who was discovered useless after he posted a video on social media of himself setting a picture of Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on fireplace.
A whole lot gathered on the cemetery within the small Iranian city of Aligudarz on November 3 to honor Sarlak, whose household and supporters reject a police declare that he dedicated suicide following his viral video burning the chief’s picture.
Within the aftermath of the burial, Iranians shared photographs and movies of themselves torching portraits of the 86-year-old Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic republic.
Sarlak’s last Instagram tales confirmed a burning picture of Khamenei set to archival audio of Iran’s final shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with captions urging youth to stand up — posts that turned him into an emblem of defiance after his dying and sparked a brand new wave of “burn the portrait” movies.
“How lengthy ought to we endure humiliation, poverty, and being ridden over? That is the second to point out your self, younger folks. These clerics are nothing however a stream for Iran’s youth to cross,” Sarlak, who was in his 20s, wrote in a single Instagram story.
At his graveside, crowds packed the procession vowing justice.
Sarlak’s father was filmed on the web site the place his son’s physique was discovered, saying, “They killed my champion,” reflecting deep mistrust of the official report on the reason for dying.
Police in Aligudarz alleged that Sarlak died of a self-inflicted gunshot in a automobile and opened a forensic probe into the dying. Nevertheless, social media customers mentioned authorities pressured the household to just accept a suicide discovering. The household has not commented on allegations that they had been pressured.
In a video, Sarlak’s father mentioned his son was “surrounded” in an underground passageway and killed. The person who filmed the video added that the killers left a gun subsequent to him to current the dying as a suicide. Neither the daddy nor the person behind the digital camera explicitly accused the state of involvement.
Critics of the Islamic republic have described Sarlak’s dying as suspicious in social media posts.
Talking with state tv earlier than the burial, Sarlak’s father urged the general public “not to concentrate” to on-line rumors — an interview broadly dismissed as a “pressured confession” given the Islamic republic has lengthy proven little tolerance for dissent.
