Alive in “Body Bags”: Kahrizak’s Documented Horror Resurfaces

Documented testimonies and materials received from Tehran—registered with a human-rights documentation body—have resurfaced shocking allegations about Kahrizak, long associated with Iran’s crackdown apparatus.

According to the account, a family spent days searching for their missing son across hospitals, morgues, and detention sites. Their trail led to Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, and then to what they called the “final stop”: Kahrizak. There, after passing rows of plastic coverings and body bags, they encountered a scene that shattered the line between life and death: their son was inside a “body bag”… still breathing.

The testimony states the young man had been critically wounded by live fire. After allegedly witnessing security forces firing “finishing shots” at wounded protesters, he pretended to be dead to survive—only to be transported alive in a vehicle used for bodies. The account says he remained motionless for three days, without food or water, inside the plastic bag among the dead, hoping to live long enough to bear witness.

The narrative also draws a historical line: it recalls a statement attributed to Khomeini in the early 1980s claiming that “the MEK torture themselves to say the regime tortures,” followed—according to circulated testimonies—by brutal directives such as: “finish off the half-dead… send the wounded from hospital beds to the killing grounds.”

In parallel, widely shared footage linked to the Kahrizak atmosphere shows a mother bidding farewell to her slain child under heavy security—while chanting against Khamenei—underscoring defiance even in moments of grief.

The testimonies conclude with a message attributed to a 17-year-old girl calling from Tehran: “Don’t worry about us… we’ve found our path now.”

Backed by documented accounts, these revelations do not merely reopen the Kahrizak file—they also point to a reality far grimmer than official narratives, suggesting the scale of killings and abuses may be much larger, reinforcing calls for independent investigations and accountability, particularly regarding the targeting of the wounded and denial of medical care.