Javad Tajik, the head of Behesht-e Zahra Organization, the authority overseeing Tehran’s largest cemetery—officially acknowledged for the first time at a press conference the presence of coup de grâce gunshot wounds on the bodies of those injured during the January 2026 protests. However, he blamed the crime on “terrorists.”
He said: “Certainly terrorists and those who were armed delivered coup de grâce shots to the people and to more than 70% of the bodies; the terrorists fired.”
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This unusual claim comes despite numerous accounts from eyewitnesses, bereaved families, and forensic reports indicating that coup de grâce shots were fired directly at the heads and chests of the wounded by security forces and the Basij militia, a paramilitary force under the Iranian regime, to ensure that no witnesses remained alive. The high rate of coup de grâce wounds—reported in more than 70% of the bodies—itself points to the systematic nature of this crime, rather than the actions of “unknown terrorists.”
