A journalist who exposed corruption in the Iranian government has been buried at a secret location after his body was snatched by security forces, it has emerged.
Reza Haghighatnejad, 45, fled Iran in 2008 but continued to report on the regime from outside Iran, according to local media.
After he died from cancer, his family got permission to bring his body back so he could be buried in his homeland.
But when his body arrived at Shiraz airport on 26th October, it was reportedly confiscated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
His body has now reportedly been buried in a secret location.
Haghighatnejad’s sister Sara posted on Instagram on 28th October that his family had received threats from Iranian security forces that they would bury the body in secret.
She reportedly said: “Every moment they threaten us that they will bury Reza without our presence.”
Radio Farda – the Iranian branch of the US-funded Radio Free Europe – has reported that he was buried far from his hometown at an undisclosed location.
The IRGC reportedly did not allow his family to attend his burial or have a funeral service.
Hekhetnejad began working as a journalist for Iranian local and national media before protests in 2008 forced him to leave the country.
He then worked with international media from Turkey before reporting on corruption in Iran.
Hekhetnejad continued to be active on social media and support the ongoing protests gripping the country until he died of cancer at the Charite Hospital in Berlin on 17th October after battling the disease for six months.
Iranian forces have been cracking down on waves of civil disorder following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, who was on a visit to Tehran when she was arrested by morality police, accused of violating hijab rules on 13th September.
She was allegedly beaten while in custody and spent the following days in a coma in the hospital before succumbing in the ICU on 16th September.
The clinic where she was treated said in a now-deleted social media post that she had been admitted brain-dead.
Alleged medical scans of her skull leaked by hackers showed that she had suffered bone fractures, haemorrhages, and brain oedema.
Independent Iranian media have claimed that Mahsa’s medical records showing her history of heart disease were faked by the Iranian government.
Dissident Iranian activists have now reportedly said that over 400 people have died as a result of security forces cracking down on the protests gripping the country.
