A glass pane on the grave of Jina Mahsa Amini, whose death in Iranian morality police custody sparked nationwide protests, was smashed by a group of unidentified people in Saqqez, Kurdistan province, on 21 May.
In recent weeks, security officials in Saqqez have used threats and pressure to prevent the construction of a canopy over Amini’s grave, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Saleh Nikbakht, the lawyer for the Amini family, issued a statement saying that photos he had received from the family confirmed the news.
The lawyer said: “They have also prevented the building of a canopy over Jina’s grave, and the welder who was to build it has been told not to, or his business will be closed.”
Amini’s brother, Ashkan Amini, posted a picture on his Instagram page of the broken glass of his sister’s grave, which has been broken for the second time in recent months.
“The glass of your grave is also bothering them. We will fix it a thousand times and we will see who gets tired”, Amini’s brother wrote in the post.
Jina Mahsa Amini was arrested by the morality police on 13 September 2022 on one of Tehran’s streets for wearing her hijab “inappropriately”.
Less than two hours after being taken to the Morality Police building on Vozara Street in Tehran, she was taken to Kasra Hospital in an unconscious state due to the severity of the blows to her head inflicted by the officers.
According to published reports, Amini was brain-dead when she was hospitalised. She died three days later, on 16 September, at Kasra Hospital in Tehran.
Although the Islamic Republic, as usual, announced Amini’s cause of death as a heart attack caused by an underlying illness, her family rejected this claim, insisting that their child was perfectly healthy before her arrest.
Several eyewitnesses among the detainees in the same van that took Amini to a detention centre, later confirmed that police officers used violence and beat the young woman severely, fracturing her skull.
According to Amini’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, no judicial action has been taken in this case and the investigation has been conducted without the presence of her family and lawyer.
