DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) – Iran’s president has ordered a probe in the case of a young woman who slipped into a coma while in custody in Tehran and died, state media reported on Friday. The police have said she suffered a heart attack.
According to the state-run IRNA news agency, President Ebrahim Raisi asked Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi to “investigate the cause of the incident with urgency and special attention”.
According to reports on social media, Mahsa Amini, 22, was detained earlier this week.
Police said on Thursday that Amini, who was arrested on Tuesday, was taken to a hospital after she allegedly had a heart attack while in custody. On Friday, police said there was no violence toward or physical contact between officers and Amini while she was in custody.
Police also showed closed-circuit footage appearing to show Amini inside a police station, with other detainees.
At one point she stands up from a chair, goes to speak to another woman, then holds her head with both hands, stumbles against a chair and collapses. In the next segment of the footage she is being carried away on a stretcher.
The official website of Iran’s judiciary, Mizan.news, said that Tehran’s chief prosecutor Ali Salehi ordered a police team of forensic pathologists to examine the medical aspects of the case.
