Protests swept across the Kurdish cities in Iran following the death of Farinaz Khosravani in the city of Mahabad.
The security forces have deployed troops in the Kurdish cities and they have arrested and wounded dozens.
In a short interview with Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), Farinaz Khosravani’s brother, Suliman Khosravani, said today that the owner of the Tara hotel in Mahabad, where her sister had worked before her suspicious death had told the family of the death of Farinaz Khosravani in a phone call conversation on 3 May.
He said that her body had been taken for post-mortem examination the same day and that the family had buried her after the authorities returned the body on 5 May.
Regarding the latest developments on the case and how she had died, he said: “It is not yet clear for us either. The investigations are ongoing. The suspect has been arrested in Mahabad and he is being investigated.”
He said that the family saw the suspect on 9 May when he was brought from prison to the Mahabad court.
On whether or not the detained suspect was a government official, he said; “We were told different things. Once they said he works for a government office in charge of rating hotels. Later they said he is adviser of a privately-owned company.”
He said that the family has lodged formal complaints against the Tara hotel owner, since he had published “a fake video that apparently shows my sister had a relation with the suspect. This is not true.”
The family had nothing to do with organisation of the protests and that people had protested at their own will, he said, adding that he urges the media outlets not to quote them on fabricated stories.
“We have nothing to do with protest organising, people did that based on their own decisions. I would also like to tell all media outlets to stop falsely quoting members of our family. We have never said that we were aware of relations between my sister and the suspect as some media outlets have claimed. We reject those fabricated stories, they are baseless,” he said.
He added: “As family of the victim we cannot say how this incident had exactly happened. We are waiting for the investigation results.”
