Thursday, December 03, 2009
A 26-YEAR-OLD doctor who exposed the torture of jailed protesters in Iran died of poisoning from a delivery salad laced with an overdose of blood pressure medication, prosecutors say.
The findings fuelled opposition fears he was killed because of what he knew.
Investigators are trying to determine if his death last month was a suicide or murder, Tehran’s public prosecutor Abbas Dowlatabadi said.
The revelations of torture against prisoners in Iran’s post-election turmoil angered even government supporters and deeply embarrassed the country’s clerical leadership and security forces.
Much of the abuse took place at Kahrizak, a prison on Tehran’s outskirts where hundreds of opposition protesters were taken.
Several there died, and the facility became so notorious that Iran’s supreme leader was forced to close it down.
Ramin Pourandarjani, a doctor at Kahrizak, later testified to a parliamentary committee and reportedly told them that a young protester who he treated had died from severe torture.
He said he was also forced by security officials to list the cause of death as meningitis.
Pourandarjani died on November 10. Forensic tests showed that he died of "poisoning by drugs" that matched doses of the drug, propranolol, found in a salad that was delivered to him.
The drug is used to treat high blood pressure, rapid heart rate and tremors.
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