Not only did they lose their own in his bloody protests, but now they are being asked to pay large sums of money to get their bodies back.
Multiple sources told BBC Persian that the bodies are being held in morgues and hospitals and that security forces are refusing to hand them over unless relatives pay money.
A family in the northern city of Rust that security forces demanded 700 million tomans ($5,000 – £3,700) to give the body of their loved one. The body was being held at the Poursina hospital morgue, along with at least 70 other dead protesters, they said.
In Tehran, the family of a Kurdish seasonal construction worker went to collect his body but were told they had to pay one billion tomans ($7,000 – £5,200) to collect it. The family told the BBC they could not afford the amount and were forced to leave without their son’s body. A construction worker in Iran typically earns less than $100 a month.
They break down doors and take the bodies
In some cases, hospital staff have called relatives of the dead to warn them in advance to come quickly to collect the bodies, before security forces arrive and extort money.
“Many families, fearing that the authorities might keep the bodies or bury them without their knowledge, broke down the door of the mortuary and took the bodies out of the ambulances,” a source told the BBC.
