The family of a teenage girl who died during protests in Iran were forced to make false statements, a source close to the family told the BBC, News.ro reports.

Nika Shakarami, 16, disappeared in Tehran on September 20 after telling a friend that she was being followed by the police.

On Wednesday night, the teenager’s aunt, Atash, appeared on state television, saying: “Nika died after falling from the building.”

Also, her uncle was criticizing the protests in the country on TV, and it was as if someone was whispering to him: “Say, you scoundrel!”

A quoted source told BBC Persian that the two were given “coerced confessions” which were obtained “after intense interrogation and after being threatened to kill other family members”.

The girl’s aunt and uncle were detained after talking to the media

Atash and Naika’s uncle, Mohsen, were detained by authorities after Atash posted his niece’s death online and spoke to the media. According to the quoted source, the televised statements were recorded before the broadcast.

Before her arrest on Sunday, Atash told BBC Persian that the Revolutionary Guards had told her that Nika had been detained for five days before being handed over to prison authorities.

The justice clarified that on the night she disappeared, Nika entered the building, where eight construction workers were present, and was found dead in the outer courtyard the next morning.

The fractures indicate that Nick was thrown from a height

Mohammad Shahriari, a Tehran court official, said Wednesday that an autopsy showed that Nika suffered “multiple fractures … of the pelvis, head, upper and lower limbs, arms and legs, indicating that the person was thrown from a height.”

He stated that this proved that her death had nothing to do with the protests.

However, a death certificate issued by the capital’s cemetery, obtained by BBC Persian, shows that the girl died after “multiple blunt force trauma”.

Nike’s Instagram and Telegram accounts were deleted after her disappearance, Atash said.

Iranian security forces have been known to ask detainees to give them access to social media accounts so that accounts or certain posts can be deleted.

A report aired on state television on Wednesday night also included footage of Atash confirming that her niece’s body had been found near the courthouse, contradicting earlier statements made by her and other family members.

The girl’s family said they found Nike’s body in the detention center’s morgue 10 days after the girl disappeared, and that authorities only allowed them to see her face for a few seconds to identify her.

Before her arrest, Atash stated that she did not go to the morgue.

Naika’s family moved the teenager’s body to her father’s hometown of Khorramabad in the west of the country on Sunday – the day she would have turned 17.

A source close to them told BBC Persian that under pressure from the authorities, the family agreed not to hold a public funeral. However, security forces “kidnapped” the girl’s body from Khorramabad and secretly buried it in the village of Weisian, about 40 km away.

Later, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Khorramabad cemetery and chanted anti-government slogans, including “Death to the dictator,” referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Nika is not the only young protester killed in protests that erupted last month after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab law.

The family of 22-year-old Hadis Najafi said he was shot dead by security forces during a protest in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on September 21. Officials reportedly asked her father to say she died of a heart attack.

Another 16-year-old girl, Sarina Esmailzadeh, died after security forces hit her on the head with batons during protests in Karaj on September 23, a source quoted by Amnesty International said. The source also told the human rights group that security and intelligence agents harassed the girl’s family to silence her.

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