Iran erupted over the weekend following the murder of a young man named Omid Sarlak (27), just hours after he posted a video online criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Sarlak, a resident of the city of Aligudarz in western Iran, was buried Sunday at a funeral where attendees were recorded shouting, "Death to Khamenei." According to Iranian reports, the young man's body was found on Saturday in his car. Reports added that a weapon was placed beside him.
On Friday, Sarlak posted a video on Instagram in which he burned a photo of Ali Khamenei and recited words spoken by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Pahlavi was Iran's former ruler who was forced to leave the country and died in exile after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. "Death to the clerics. How long poverty, how long humiliation. Now is the time to show yourself, young man, and prove yourself," the young Iranian wrote on Instagram.
Video: Omid Sarlak's family mourns him after he was murdered for burning a photo of Ali Khamenei. Credit: Arab media
Sarlak's family members reported that Iranian regime security forces refused to hand over the body for some time and pressured them to announce that he "committed suicide." In contrast, many Iranian internet users raised the possibility that a force associated with the Revolutionary Guards was behind the young man's murder.
Despite this, the city police commander announced it was a "suicide," after the young man's body was "found" behind a stadium. According to the commander, the young man shot himself with a pistol.
Some Iranian internet users claimed the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence organization arrested Sarlak because of his social media posts. It was further claimed he was actually killed through brutal Revolutionary Guards torture and only then placed in the car.
On the Iran International website, which is identified with the Iranian opposition, they noted that in recent years the Iranian regime has reported "suicide" many times when suspicious death incidents of Iranian citizens occurred.
