– Identify yourself. The sanctity and punishment of perjury and concealment of testimony in accordance with Article 209 of the Code of Criminal Procedure will be explained to you. Swear that you will say nothing but the truth and tell the whole truth.

First and Last Name: Seyed Shahin Naseri
Father’s name: Seyed Eynuddin
Date of birth: 1972
Place of birth: Shahroud
National ID Number: 4591157873
Date of arrest: Sep 17, 2018
Occupation: Self-Employed
Education: Bachelor of Business
Causal, relative kinship, servant-master relationship with the parties: I have / I do not have
Email: shahinnaseri-397

I was informed about the sanctity and punishment of false testimony and concealment of truth. I swear by God Almighty that I will say nothing but the truth and tell the whole truth.

Q: Regarding the complaint of Mr. Navid Afkari Sangari, what are your observations?

A: I was arrested on Sep 17, 2018 in Qazvin province. On Oct 26 or 27, 2018, I was transferred to the police station in Shiraz. (Oct 14, 2019, investigation sheet from the witness, Branch 8 of the Public Prosecutor’s Office)

[…] And about two weeks later, I was taken from the detention center with my hands and feet cuffed by officer ZareKhafri. I was with Sargent Behrouz Vahidiyar in the corridor of the station for interrogation, when we heard screams, beatings and swearing. Vahidiyar opened the room’s door from which we could hear screams and obscenities and told me not to go forward and stay there and not to move, and I, who could clearly hear the obscenities and begging and beatings, went ahead out of curiosity and looked inside the room and I saw… (Oct 31, 2019, letter to the Chief of the Supreme Court)

For about 50 days in the detention center of the police station, I endured the most severe mental and physical torture and obscenities. With sticks and batons, they severely beat my arms, legs, abdomen and back. Among those who tortured me, I only remember the names of Mr. Nikbakhti, the head of the Fifth Branch, and Mr. Abbasi, the case officer. In mid-November, I was transferred to prison, and on Nov 26, 2019, I was transferred to No. 100, the intelligence ward. I was in detention center No. 100 until Feb 7, 2019, during which time I suffered all kinds of mental, psychological and physical torture. They put plastic bags on my face and pushed me to the point of suffocation and death. My arms, abdomen, and legs were severely beaten with batons and hard objects, and I was repeatedly insulted with insulting vulgar words and obscenities. They tied me tightly and poured alcohol on my nose. At all stages of the interrogation, I reported the subject of my torture to Mr. Behrouzi, the investigator of the Eighth Branch, and Mr. Darehshouri, the investigator of the Tenth Branch, who unfortunately did not pay any attention to the issue. (Sep 13, 2019 Navid Afkari’s complaint)

I saw two people in plain clothes with pipes and batons beating Mr. Navid Afkari, who had fallen on the ground and holding his head with his hands, they hit his hand hard (Page 2, Testimony of Shahin Naseri Oct 31, 2019, submitted to the Chief of the Supreme Court)

Referring to the letter No. 200/1/121/8/8 dated May 9, 2019 regarding Mr. / Mrs. Navid Afkari, the owner of attached photo, son of Hussein, inform you:

He was examined on May 14, 2019 and showed no signs of beatings. He claims to have had an accident about three months ago and a fracture in his right hand. According to expert advice, there is an old fracture in the fifth bone of the right palm… (Letter from West Shiraz Forensic Medicine)

They were telling him that everything we say is true, and at the same time Sargent Vahidiyar saw me watching these scenes. He kicked me hard in the abdomen, I fell to the ground, he took a blindfold from his pocket and closed my eyes and took me away. A few hours later, when I saw Navid Afkari in the detention center, he cried and told me that Abbasi, my case officer, had broken my hand. Now, I, Seyyed Shahin Naseri, with the knowledge of the consequences and punishment of false testimony, am willing to testify and tell the truth and my sightings to any official and judicial authority in any court, and I confirm the accuracy of my statements with my fingerprint. (Page 2 Testimony of Shahin Naseri sent to the Chief of the Supreme Court)

August 31, 2020, 12 days before the murder of Navid Afkari, Shahin Naseri in a phone call from prison:

On September 19, 2020, Babak Paknia proposed to represent Shahin Naseri. Three days later, on September 22, 2020, Paknia announced his power of attorney, along with transfer of Shahin to the NAJA intelligence since September 11. On October 2, Paknia announced the transfer of Shahin Naseri to the Saadat ward of Adelabad Prison in Shiraz.

A year later, on September 21, 2021, Shahin Naseri, who is now imprisoned in the Greater Tehran Prison, insists to “testify and tell the truth” and what he had seen, “knowing the consequences and punishment of false testimony.”

Shahin Naseri, however, is killed by the authorities in solitary confinement.

On Tuesday, September 21, 2021, Iran Human Rights Organization announced the “death” of Shahin Naseri in solitary confinement in Greater Tehran Prison. “I saw Shahin Naseri’s body in the prison medical center,” the organization quoted a Shahin associate as saying. “He had repeatedly reported that Navid Afkari had been tortured and forced to confess. About the fact that he witnessed the torture of Navid Afkari and was transferred to solitary confinement many times for this reason. Some time ago, on the anniversary of Navid Afkari’s execution, he was transferred from ward to an unknown location, and we thought he was transferred to ward 209 in Evin. But today we found out that he was in solitary confinement in the Greater Tehran Prison, so that he would not be able to make phone calls and have interviews with news agencies.”

Shortly after the news broke, Babak Paknia tweeted that Shahin had called him three times yesterday, Monday, September 20. He realized this because the number of Greater Tehran Prison had been shown on his phone. Half an hour later, Paknia tweeted again that he had talked with Shahin Naseri  on Monday, September 20 on the phone and Shahin asked him to represent him. That day, Babak Pakia was overly active not only on Twitter, but also in the pro-regime media. In the same hours that he regularly wrote about Shahin’s phone call, not representing him in this case, and creating doubt about the Human Rights Organization’s report on Twitter, in an interview, he introduced himself as the case lawyer and spoke about “Shahin Naseri’s death not confirmed by the judiciary.”

The next day, Wednesday, September 22, the audio file of Farhad Salmanpour-Zahir’s phone call, a political prisoner imprisoned in the Greater Tehran Prison, was released on social media and the media:

According to Farhad’s testimony, Shahin Naseri was in a solitary confinement cell in the Greater Tehran Prison, aka Suite, from 6:30PM on Monday, September 13, 2021 till 10:30 AM on September 21, 2021, when his lifeless body was transported on a wheelchair from a solitary confinement cell to the Greater Tehran Prison Medical Center. In this part of the prison, it is not possible for a prisoner to communicate with other prisoners – hence the name “solitary confinement” – as well as the outside world, through telephone calls and other means of communication. Babak Paknia must answer how Shahin Naseri was able to contact him from solitary confinement, not once but three times.

Today, September 23, 2021, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Attorney General, in response to a question about the death of Shahin Naseri said: “Ask the relevant authorities to provide you with information.”

An hour after the referral to the “relevant officials” by the highest official, the judiciary media, Mizan News Agency, which Babak Paknia had used to deny the report of Shahin Naseri’s death two days ago, in a statement without giving any details about the time, reason and place of death, two days after the death, confirmed the news of Shahin Naseri’s death. The cause of death is mentioned as “under investigation by forensic medicine”.

Exactly 1 year ago, on this very day, September 23, Saeed Dehghan, attorney of Navid Afkari’s two brothers, Habib and Vahid, who have been detained in solitary confinement since a week before Navid’s murder, reacted to the news of Shahin Naseri’s transfer to NAJA’s intelligence detention center:

With the assassination of Shahin Naseri, the inability of the judiciary to “be a criminal” and “being a liar” has led to it becoming a “murderer.” Instead of explaining the “sanctity and punishment of false testimony” to the witness, the judiciary should now write on the prisoners’ testimony pages about the consequences and dangers of “true testimony” and insisting on it:

“I was informed about the sanctity and punishment of true testimony and the emphasis on it. I swear by your God that I will say nothing but lies and hide the whole truth.”

Translation of this post by Sahar.