On Thursday, February 23, activists in Sistan and Baluchestan provinces reported the news of the death of Dr. Ebrahim Rigi, 24, in Zahedan. Rigi was a physician who had been arrested during nationwide protests and had been recently released. Regime authorities announced his death as a result of “assault.” But according to activists, on the day of his death, he was arrested by the police for resuming his political activities and beaten to death at a police station.
Ebrahim Rigi was among the physicians who helped treat the injured after “Zahedan’s Bloody Friday”. On September 30, 2022, security forces opened fire on peaceful protesters who had rallied after the Friday prayers. At least a hundred people, including several children, were killed on this day. A few days later, on October 13, the police arrested Rigi at the Social Security Hospital in Zahedan.
According to Mr. Rigi’s relatives, he was charged with “Enmity against God, corruption on earth, and leading protests.” He was released on bail in December.
According to the local website report of Sistan and Baluchestan, on Thursday, Mr. Rigi was arrested again on the evening of Wednesday, February 22. Just one hour later, forensic officers came to the police station, examined the body and observed that his clothes were torn, and declared the cause of death to be assault.
Activists say he was arrested again because he published an Instagram post in which he said that death and execution are no longer important to him.
According to the same source, “On February 22, around 4:30 PM, two agents arrested Ebrahim from the area of Karimpur Street and took him to the 12th police station in Bethat area. Ebrahim’s phone was switched off from the moment of his arrest and he was beaten. He died at the police station. The judge of the special homicide branch… and the judge on duty and the medical examiner confirmed that Ebrahim died as a result of a beating that took place inside the 12th police station.”
Ali Rahimi, deputy commander of the police force of Sistan and Baluchistan province, claimed, “This person was in a bad condition in the back seat of the car, and the police immediately intervened by seeing the inside of the car, they found an unconscious person in the car, and immediately informed the emergency services. After examining this person, named Ebrahim Rigi, the emergency staff at the scene announced that he had been dead for more than an hour.”
“Last night, some people with a car went to the door of the police station in 12th district of Zahedan and announced that they had arrested a person on 23 Karimpour street, identified as Ebrahim Rigi for whom the arrest warrant had already been issued by the judicial authority They brought him to the police,” Rahimi added.
In his last Instagram post, Dr. Ebrahim Rigi said:
“No Iranian or Baluch will forget September 30. The incident was as wide as the broken hearts of the bereaved mothers as wide as the broken hearts of the families of Khodnour, Mahsa Amini, and other victims. We all had many dreams in this land, and we might say to ourselves that we have died somewhere else, and this is our hell. Maybe so… I did not know that helping the wounded and criticizing the killing of our brothers and sisters is also a sin. In this land, however, I have complained to God against all those who have been involved in oppressing me. But my dears, know this, even my death, even my execution, was no longer important to me. Because I have died many times in this country, they made many suggestions for my departure from this land. They sent me messages from all over the world, but I will not leave my city and Makki.”
A handwriting by Ebrahim Rigi that seems to be from the time he was in Zahedan prison:
“You scare us from beheading, if we were afraid of, we wouldn’t dance in the lovers’ circle.”
2) The authorities tried to pressure Ebrahim Rigi’s family to bury him without an autopsy & gave them contradictory information about the circumstances of his death to evade responsibility, including by blaming his death on a heart attack.
— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) February 24, 2023
