According to information Iran International received from a source, Peyman Kadiri, a 45-year-old Dey uprising protester, died following injuries sustained nearly nine months earlier when he was shot in the head and fell into a coma. The source stated that on the 19th of Dey in the year 1404 (early January 2026), security forces entered Kadiri's home in Qarchak district, on the outskirts of Tehran, and shot him at close range in the head, causing severe injury.
According to the same source, security officials also detained Kadiri's son that night; this step is alleged to have been used as a pressure tactic to silence the family about the incident. Kadiri, who had studied art and worked as an interior designer, was described by relatives as a charitable person who had covered wedding expenses for several people and cared for orphaned children.
Throughout the approximately nine months from Kadiri's injury to his death, his family's situation was not made public; news of the incident only became known now, through a source reaching Iran International. These claims rest on a single source and have not been independently verified. The identity of the security personnel allegedly involved has not been specified, and no official statement from authorities addresses the matter; the duration and outcome of the son's detention remain unclear in the report.
Context
The Dey uprising refers to nationwide protests that intensified in the month of Dey in the year 1404 (December 2025–January 2026) in response to worsening economic conditions and rising cost of living, and quickly transformed into demands with political dimensions. Security force intervention in multiple cities resulted in deaths and injuries. Amnesty International reported that the Islamic Republic has executed at least 34 people in cases linked to this wave, including government opponents and protesters, with dozens more facing execution risk; monitoring organizations like HRANA have reported a total of 2,003 executions in Iran over the past year. (See: Amnesty International: Iran continuing execution wave against protesters). Reports of abuse of political prisoners held at Evin Prison also came to the fore this week. (See: 14 political prisoners at Evin). The UN's special rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly, Gina Romero, has previously called for an end to executions in Iran and independent monitoring of prisoners facing execution risk; Kadiri's case falls within the scope of these monitoring calls—a case of severe injury rather than execution, but carrying similar implications for state accountability in protest suppression.
Kadiri's death exemplifies the ongoing uncertainty about the numbers, identities, and fates of those injured during protest suppression—a gap that persists months later. The Tehran government typically does not issue public statements in response to such allegations of protest suppression operations; human rights organizations argue that actual casualty figures may be higher than official statements suggest. The death of severely injured protesters after weeks or months in a coma strengthens criticism that official mortality statistics may undercount the real human cost of the protest crackdown.
The presumption of innocence applies.
