Contrary to the assertive claims made by military commanders of the coup administration in Iran that no person has died at Kahrizak prison run by the police, Mehr news agency on Monday quoted an informed source who stated that based on a report issued by the coroner’s office, the cause of death of Mohsen Ruholamini was “physical stress, detention conditions, repeated strikes and a hit by a hard object”. Prior to this, security-military officials had declared meningitis to have been the cause of Ruholamini’s death.

Ruholamini is the son of an advisor to former Passdaran commander Mohsen Rezai who was also a presidential contender for the June 12 elections. Ruholamini was arrested on July 9. 2009 near his house in Tehran and despite the promises that security and judiciary officials had made that he were to be imminently released, his body was handed over to his family members indicating clear signs of beatings and physical harm.

After seeing the victim’s body, Mohsen Ruholamini’s father, Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini, announced that the jaws of his son’s body were broken and that he had been tortured. Recently dismissed Tehran prosecutor Mortezavi and other law enforcement and security officials had pronounced the cause of Ruholamini’s, and Mohammad Kamran’s - another victim of prison abuse - deaths to be meningitis.

The source who revealed the real cause of Ruholamini’s death to Mehr news agency, explained that the victim was being transferred to Evin prison from Kahrizak while he was in unsatisfactory health condition, but was refused there and, after a 70 minute delay, ended up in a hospital where he eventually lost his life.

The source added that the coroner’s office had reported its final and official conclusion about the cause of Ruholamini’s death to the appropriate legal authorities and parties on August 16, 2009.

Meanwhile, state run IRNA news agency claimed again on Monday that Ruholamini had died because of an illness. It wrote that the Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini, who had met ayatollah Khamenei recently along with other university professors, was the father of Mohsen Ruholamini who in the course of recent arrests had died because of an “illness.”