AP reports today that prosecutors say 26-year-old Dr. Ramin Pourandarjani, a doctor at the Kahrizak detention facility in Iran, died of an overdose of Propranolol, a drug used to treat hypertension, found in his salad through forensic tests. The suspicious circumstances surrounding Pourandarjani’s death prompted further investigation and calls to action by human rights groups, amid speculation by opposition groups that he was killed because of his knowledge of torture and abuses in the Kahrizak prison, which was closed in July. He had testified before a parliamentary committee and reportedly said that “one young protestor he treated died from heavy torture.”
AP:
“Investigators are still trying to determine whether his death was a suicide or murder, Tehran’s public prosecutor Abbas Dowlatabadi said, according to the state news agency IRNA.”
Our readers will recall conflicting accounts of what transpired, including first that Pourandarjani’s father was called by authorities who told him his son was injured in a car accident, requiring his consent for a surgery. His father arrived only to find his son dead. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, Iran’s top police commander called the death a suicide, citing a note found by the body. Pourandarjani’s father maintains that his son was in good spirits, his voice was “full of hope,” that he had been making plans with friends when he spoke to his son the night before his death.
Back to topInvestigators questioned the restaurant delivery man but he is not under arrest, Dowlatabadi said. The delivery man said he gave the salad directly to Pourandarjani, describing how the doctor took it from him at the door of his room, then closed the door behind him. […]
The doctor’s father, Reza-Qoli Pourandarjani, told The Associated Press last month that he didn’t believe any of the causes given so far by the government in his son’s death. But he didn’t go as far as accusing authorities of killing his son.