“Mehdi Zarei,” a 22-year-old Kurdish man from the village of Hasanabad in Hamedan, a casting engineer and PDR specialist, is another of those killed during the popular protests in Tehran, in the Hozeh Narmak area.
According to Kolbarnews, on Thursday, 8 January 2026, Mehdi Zarei was shot directly in the heart and mouth by forces of the Islamic Republic during nationwide protests in Tehran and lost his life. After his death, his family remained unaware of the whereabouts of his body for several days, until it was eventually handed over to them. Informed sources reported that some parts of his body were broken at the time of delivery, and that the family was forced to sign a written pledge stating that he had “fallen from a height” in order to receive the body.
A close family member described the condition of Mehdi’s body as follows: “We thank God that we received the body intact. All the bodies were piled on top of each other without clothes, and many people had body parts exposed. One of the victims looked as if the inside of his head was empty, it was like the Day of Judgment.”
In his last call with his mother, Mehdi Zarei said: “Mom, my blood is no redder than anyone else’s.”
Mehdi Zarei was born on 17 September 2003 in the village of Hasanabad in Hamedan. In addition to being a casting engineer, he also worked in the field of PDR.
As of the time of this report, it is unclear whether the family was forced to pay money in order to receive the body; however, informed sources had previously told Kolbarnews that in similar cases, government institutions have demanded sums ranging from 700 million to one billion tomans from families in Tehran and Kermanshah to hand over the bodies of those killed in protests forcing some families to pay these amounts to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.
