A 23-year-old medical student who Iranian officials claimed fell to her death at a building site was actually shot in the back of the head by a policeman at a protest.

The claim was made by her uncle, Mahmoud Jafari, who told foreign-based independent media that Aylar Haghi was shot in back of the head at point-blank range at the anti-regime demonstration in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, on 16th November.

Police in the Islamic Republic had claimed that Aylar – a fourth-year medical student at the Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch – had fallen to her death at a building site.

Ebrahim Mahmoudi, the head of the Intelligence Police in East Azerbaijan, had described her death as an “accident”.

Earlier reports by independent media had stated that security police had hurled Aylar from the top of a building after she had taken shelter inside during a protest march.

She had died, independent media had said, when she was pierced by a reinforcing steel bar.

Mahmoud told independent media that officials had first refused to hand over his niece’s body unless her family corroborated the official narrative of the young woman falling from a height.

He said that Aylar’s father was arrested for not co-operating with the officials.

Mourners at Aylar’s funeral at Vadi-e Rahmat Cemetery, Tabriz, on 18th November reportedly chanted slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Their actions were violently suppressed by security police, independent media reported.

Pro-regime media in Iran are still claiming that Aylar’s death was not related to the protests.

Aylar was an ethnic Azeri. Azeris are Iran’s second-largest ethnic group, after Persians.

Iranian minorities are believed by many human rights groups to disproportionately suffer from state repression.

The ongoing protests in Iran have so far killed at least 378 people, including 47 children, and injured at least 1,160, according to independent estimates.

It is also understood that more than 15,000 people have been arrested.