An Iranian man lay among the dead at a Kahrizak forensic facility, pretending to be deceased for three days, fearing that if he were discovered, regime officers would execute him with a “finishing shot,” the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center reported on Wednesday, citing an account it had received.
The IHRDC noted that, due to internet blackouts and restrictions imposed by the Iranian government, it was unable to verify the authenticity of the account, but that it represents a rare incidence of survival, as many other people are being killed.
According to the account shared by the IHRDC, the family of the man spent three days looking for their son, who had gone missing, searching hospitals and the Behesht Zahra cemetery before finally locating him at the Kahrizak facility, where images of the bodies of protesters had spread online.
There, the man had been reportedly badly wounded by a bullet. According to the account, he had lain motionless under a plastic sheet for three days without food or water.
After being located, he was subsequently transferred to a hospital for further treatment.
BBC receives deceased victims' pictures
The account comes as the BBC reported on Wednesday that it had received hundreds of images of deceased victims taken at the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre.
The broadcaster reported that it had identified 326 people from 392 close-up photos of victims, with one source telling it that they saw victims as young as 12 or 13 and as old as 70 there.
The BBC reported that many of the victims had been too disfigured to be able to be identified, and that 69 had simply been labeled “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” in Persian.
Earlier this month, on January 12, a US-based Iranian rights group, HRANA, reported that it had estimated at the time that some 250 had piled up at the facility.
The Islamic regime’s crackdown on the ongoing protests has racked up a body count in the thousands since demonstrations began late last month.
While the true figure of the number of dead is unknown, according to HRANA, as of Wednesday, the organization has confirmed the death of some 4,519 people. Another 9,049 are under review by the group.