An Iranian man was found dead from a gunshot wound after sharing a photo of himself burning an image of the country's supreme leader. Mourners have held the authorities responsible for his death. Omid Sarlak, from Lorestan province in western Iran, shared a video on Instagram last Friday showing him burning an image of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a forest.
Hours later, he was found dead in his car. Police in Aligudarz said he had apparently taken his own life, with a pistol found nearby. However, dozens of mourners chanted slogans including "they killed him!" and "death to Khamenei," expressing their anger over Sarlak's death at his funeral on Monday.
Suspicious Death
In the video, Sarlak, who was in his 20s, played a recording of the voice of the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, signaling his support for the Iranian monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Reza Pahlavi, the Shah's son living in the U.S., wrote on X that Sarlak "stood against the oppression of the Islamic Republic and sacrificed his life for Iran's freedom."
Meanwhile, Iran's Tasnim news agency dismissed claims from "anti-revolution media" that Sarlak had been persecuted for his statements or murdered under suspicious circumstances, stating there was no case against him and that he had died by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
A video shared by Iranian opposition outlets showed Sarlak's father in tears, saying, "they killed my boy."
Going Against the Regime
However, he later appeared in an interview on local state-run television, urging people not to trust what they see on social media.
Activists say the authorities are stepping up their crackdown, three years after nationwide protests challenged the government and just months after the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran in June.
"External aggression has fuelled deeper internal repression," the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, said last week, noting an 'alarming' surge in executions and 'mass arrests' of activists.
