"Drug poisoning" caused death of Kahrizak physician

Ramin Pourandarjani

The suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Ramin Pourandarjani, the young physician who examined some of the victims of torture in Kahrizak Dentention Centre during Iran’s post-election events, was once more in the country’s newspaper headlines as Massoud Pezeshkian, member of Iranian Parliaments Health Commission announced that his death was due to “poisoning from the drug, Inderal.”

Ramin Pourandarjani was found dead last month in his office at Tehran's Security Forces building. Initially, the coroner announced that he had died from “heart failure.”

Later the authorities changed the report and announced that the young physician had actually "committed suicide."

Commander of the security forces, Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam claimed that Pourandarjani had left a will which was “concrete proof that he had committed suicide.”

Ramin Pourandarjani’s family denies the possibility of suicide maintaining that their son’s spirits were fine and he did not appear suicidal.

The opposition claims that the suspicious circumstances of Pourandarjani’s death are connected with his first-hand knowledge of the violations committed in Kahrizak Detention centre and especially the death of one of the detainees, Mohsen Ruholamini whom Pourandarjani allegedly examined shortly before the prisoner's death.

Reportedly the young physician was under pressure to confirm that the detainee had died from “meningitis."

Mohsen Ruholamini was the son of one of the prominent figures of the conservative camp of the Islamic Republic.

Iranian security forces have been actively trying to justify the events that took place in Kahrizak in the early days of the election-protests when reports of death, torture and rape of detainees at the centre forced the Supreme Leader to issue an order to close down the place.