Paris: Iranian security forces killed Mehran Samak, 27, an Iranian man celebrating the United States win against his country’s national team in the Football World Cup event. Iran was knocked out of the World Cup by its arch enemy the United States in Qatar on Tuesday night, drawing a mixed response from pro- and anti-regime supporters.
Samak was shot directly in head while he was honking his car horn in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea coast northwest of Tehran. While earlier many had refused to support the national team in wake of government crackdown on protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
The New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) also rpublished a video from his funeral in Tehran on Wednesday at which mourners could be heard shouting “Death to the dictator”, the chant aimed at Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is one of the main slogans of the protests that flared after Amini’s death in custody on Sept 16.
Iran’s security forces have killed at least 448 people in the crackdown on the protests, including 60 children under the age of 18 and 29 women, according to IHR.