The body of a protester who disappeared during the demonstrations in Tehran last month has been returned to his family nearly fifty days later, according to information collected by Iran International from relatives and witnesses.
The victim, Vahid Lazer Monouchehri, had gone missing since widespread protests on January 8,9.
His body was handed over to relatives on Thursday with marks of gunfire and blows from a butcher’s cleaver, the family said.
Manouchehri was buried the following day under tight security in the village of Lazerban near Tonekabon, in Iran’s northern Mazandaran province.
Born on April 14, 1985, Monouchehri was a father of one and originally from Lazerban but had been living alone in Tehran. His family says they were unaware that he had taken part in the protests.
“There was no idea exactly when, where, or under what circumstances Vahid was killed,” the family said.
On Thursday, the Kahrizak forensic medical center contacted the family and asked them to travel to Tehran to collect their son’s body.
When they asked about the cause of death and why they were being contacted only after such a long delay, they say they were told: “There are many bodies here and we don’t know; just come and take the corpse.”
After arriving at Kahrizak, the family received the body along with a death certificate stating that the cause of death was “respiratory failure.”
Before handing it over, however, security officials required them to sign a written pledge not to present any account of his death other than the explanation given in the certificate.
The family then transported the body to his hometown. As it was being washed and prepared for burial, they say they discovered clear signs of severe violence: bullet wounds on his back, deep cuts to his side and a head riddled with shotgun pellets.
“It seems he was shot in the back, fell to the ground, and then officers shot him in the head at close range and hacked his body with a butcher’s cleaver,” a source close to the family said.
“The injuries make clear that the cause of death was not respiratory failure, but a state-ordered killing.”
The family also reported that the heart and kidney areas had been surgically opened and crudely stitched with large sutures. It remains unclear by whom or under what circumstances the procedure was carried out.
The operative who prosecutors say tried to hire two men to kill Trump for $5,000 upfront demonstrated the plan by placing a vape pen on a napkin to signify his “target,” the hidden camera video released by the New York Post shows.
“This is the target. How will it die?” Asif Merchant said in the meeting.
Merchant, 47, a Pakistani national who entered the United States in April 2024, is accused of attempting to recruit individuals he believed were hired killers.
Prosecutors said he offered cash payments and discussed staging a protest near a campaign rally to create confusion and allow the attackers to escape.
Although Trump was not explicitly named in the recorded exchanges, court documents show that he – then a leading candidate – was the intended target, the Post reported.
Prosecutors allege Merchant believed Trump’s policies had harmed Muslim-majority countries and acted with backing from individuals allegedly connected to Iran.
The scheme began to unravel when a Pakistani-American acquaintance, a former US Army linguist, alerted authorities after growing suspicious of Merchant’s plans. The FBI then arranged undercover meetings that were secretly recorded.
Merchant was arrested in July 2024 at an airport while attempting to leave the United States, authorities said.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges including murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence.
In November 2024, the US Department of Justice unsealed criminal charges regarding a thwarted plot by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to assassinate Donald Trump prior to the 2024 presidential election.
Trump has been a target for assassination threats since he ordered the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in Iraq.
“I am horrified by reports that at least eight people, including two children, have been sentenced to death in connection with the protests,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Another 30 people appeared to face the same risk, he added.
Amnesty International said last week that at least 30 people connected to the protests face possible execution. Eight of them – Saleh Mohammadi, 18, Mohammad Amin Biglari, 19, Ali Fahim, Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani, Amirhossein Hatami, Shahin Vahedparast Kolor, Shahab Zohdi and Yaser Rajaifar – were sentenced to death in February within weeks of their arrests.
At least 22 others, including two 17-year-olds, are awaiting trial or remain in legal proceedings, the rights group said. Amnesty reported that defendants had been subjected to “torture-tainted confessions” and other serious due process violations, including denial of access to lawyers during investigations and rejection of independent counsel chosen by families.
The organization called for an immediate halt to executions and the quashing of protest-related death sentences.
Human rights reports say tens of thousands of people have been detained in recent weeks, with some independent sources estimating the true number of summonses and arrests at close to 100,000 or even higher.
A significant portion of those detained are teenagers, young adults and citizens under the age of 30 – a generation that often has no prior experience of security interrogations or expedited court proceedings.
“I am extremely alarmed about the potential for regional military escalation and its impact on civilians, and I hope the voice of reason prevails,” Turk said in the same address.
“We, the filmmakers of Iran, condemn the suppression of people’s protests under any pretext. Protest is the natural and civil right of every human being. No power has the right to consider itself above the people,” the signatories wrote.
In a statement on January 25, the editorial board of Iran International said more than 36,500 people were killed during the targeted suppression of the Iranian protesters on the orders of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Referring to the killing of demonstrators, they added: “Shooting at people who have taken to the streets with empty hands is a crime against the right to life and has no justification.”
The statement, titled “We stand with the people of Iran,” comes after weeks of unrest and follows similar declarations by other civil and professional groups.
Earlier, more than 60 writers and activists in the field of children’s and young adult literature from several countries issued a separate statement condemning the killings on January 8 and 9.
On February 16, the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations announced a day of public mourning and school closures on February 18 in response to the deaths of more than 230 children and teenagers during the January protests. The move amounted to a strike by teachers and a call on families to keep students at home.
In their statement, the filmmakers pointed to nearly five decades of governance despite what they described as vast natural and human resources, arguing that justice, welfare and security have not been achieved. They cited organized corruption, plunder of public wealth and what they called a “fear-inducing ideology” as drivers of widespread poverty and despair.
Among the signatories are Pegah Ahangarani, Mahnaz Afshar, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Jafar Panahi, Katayoun Riahi, Saman Salour, Kianoush Ayari and Asghar Farhadi.
The filmmakers concluded that they would document “these days and these wounds” and defend freedom of expression while standing alongside the Iranian people.
