Iranian authorities demand bereaved families pay for murdered protesters’ bodies

“We couldn’t afford to pay that amount, so we left the hospital without our son’s body,” said parents of one Iranian killed in demonstrations.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Iranian authorities are demanding large payments from families seeking to reclaim the bodies of protesters killed during the recent unrest, according to accounts emerging from several cities.

Parents who lost children in the crackdown say officials used the bodies as leverage, insisting on substantial sums before releasing them.

Reports shared with BBC Persian describe officials contacting families with instructions to pay if they wanted to retrieve their loved ones.

In northern Iran, relatives of a young man from Rasht said they were told the fee would be 700 million tomans—about $5,500—before the hospital would release his remains.

The family said his body was kept in a local facility alongside dozens of others who were killed.

Another case described by relatives in Tehran involved a Kurdish construction worker shot during demonstrations.

When the family arrived to collect him, they were informed that the cost for obtaining the body was 1 billion tomans, roughly $8,000.

Unable to produce that amount, they said they left without him, adding, “We couldn’t afford to pay that amount, so we left the hospital without our son’s body.”

Families recount similar scenes inside medical centers across the capital and beyond.

Several said security forces were stationed inside hospitals to prevent any body from being released without payment. Some also reported receiving urgent calls from hospital administrators urging them to arrive quickly to retrieve the bodies “before the security forces arrive and demand payment for their release.”

Parents describe hallways filled with guards and morgue rooms holding victims from the latest round of protests, which have claimed thousands of lives.

They say authorities framed the payments as administrative fees or procedural requirements, though families insist they were told plainly that the money was a condition for receiving their children’s remains.

The claims add another layer to the allegations of severe abuse by Iran’s security apparatus during the protests, which erupted against the regime in multiple cities.

Accounts from grieving parents reflect a pattern of intimidation and financial coercion long after the killings occurred, leaving many families unable to bury their children and others forced into debt to do so.