The death of a young Iranian man who had filmed himself burning a photograph of the country’s supreme leader has sparked a war of words between state media and activists over how he died.
Government-sanctioned news websites reported that Omid Sarlak, who was in his 20s, had been found in his car on Saturday in western Iran with a gunshot wound to his head and traces of gunpowder on his hands. Iranian police said Sarlak had “died by suicide”.
But anti-government media and activists say the timing of the death, so soon after he made a public outcry against the government, raises suspicions about whether he was killed for his views.
Hours before Sarlak’s body was found, a video posted on his social media account showed him burning the photo of the Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei.
The furore presents a threat to the regime, with Sarlak becoming an icon for activists, many of whom have followed him by burning Khamenei’s photo in solidarity and posting the videos online.
Suspicions have grown after a widely circulated video showed Sarlak’s father reportedly saying at the site of his son’s death: “They killed my champion here.” An off-screen voice in the same clip was heard saying he was “surrounded and shot”.
Later, in a televised interview aired by state media, Sarlak’s father requested people to “not pay attention to what’s circulating on social media and to let the judicial authorities handle the matter”. Activists have called the video forced and said the family was under surveillance.
Hundreds of mourners who attended Sarlak’s funeral on Monday demonstrated and chanted slogans such as “Death to the dictator” and “Death to Khamenei”.
In the clip shared on Instagram by Sarlak hours before his death, a recording is audible in the background of a speech by Iran’s former shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1979, Pahlavi fled Iran, with the Islamic government taking power the same year. Some anti-government activists are nostalgic for the monarchy.
On another one of his last Instagram stories, he wrote: “How long should we endure humiliation, poverty and being ridden over? This is the moment to show yourself, young people. These clerics are nothing but a stream for Iran’s youth to cross.”
Sarlak was a student of aviation and an amateur boxer. One of his friends, the Iranian wrestler Ebrahim Eshaghi, said Sarlak had spoken to him on Instagram shortly before he died. “He sent me a message that his life was in danger and that if anything were to happen to him, we should be his voice.”
Eshaghi, who lives in Germany, said that since his death several of Sarlak’s close friends said they believed he had been killed by the intelligence services.
“He loved life and had an upcoming boxing competition in two weeks. He loved the Pahlavi family and supported them. The regime also imprisons or kills young, athletic people, something it has been doing for years.”
Sarlak’s death has reignited some of the same pain and outrage that emerged after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, a Kurdish woman who was arrested by the country’s “morality police” and died in custody in 2022, igniting huge, countrywide protests.
Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said it was notable that people inside Iran were burning photos publicly, “despite the fact that insulting or burning the supreme leader’s photo is considered a serious offence, carrying grave risks of arrest, imprisonment, harsh sentences, torture and even death”.
In one video shared with the Guardian on the condition of anonymity, two men burned images of Khamenei, saying: “We burn this photo for justice, for freedom, for hope. I am Omid Sarlak. Death to Khamenei and long live the shah.”
The editor of the Amirkabir Newsletter, an Iranian student movement website, said so far students have not held any protests in universities over Sarlak’s death “because the atmosphere on campuses remains heavily securitised”.
The editor, who has no public profile to protect them and their staff while operating inside Iran, said they believed there would be “serious protests” this year or early next year. “Day by day, people’s anger over the killing of thousands of innocent people is growing, and they are distressed and upset,” they said.
Separately, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled oldest son of the former shah has called Sarlak a hero and a brave soul who stood against the “oppression of the Islamic Republic and sacrificed his life for Iran’s freedom”.
