Iranian authorities say they have arrested a police officer over the killing of a Kurdish youth in a rare move against security forces who have been leading a brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters.
The first official reports on February 18 said Mokhtar Fathi was killed by direct fire from police in the city of Saghez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death after her detention by Iran's morality police triggered nationwide protests.
Fathi's death was first attributed to police after he was found writing slogans against the Islamic republic on the walls of the city. The Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, confirmed Fathi's death by a police bullet.
However, the Hengaw human rights group, quoting sources, reported that Fathi was shot by security forces while he was sitting in a car with two other friends near his parents' house.
The human rights group added that "the government institutions had threatened the Fathi family not to inform the public about this matter."
Hossein Hosseini, the chief justice of Kurdistan Province, acknowledged that officials received a complaint from the victim's family and that "a case has been filed against those accused and a police officer has been arrested."
Iran has been roiled by unrest -- one of the deepest challenges to the Islamic regime since the revolution in 1979 -- since the September 16 death of Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a hijab, or head scarf, improperly.
The government has held several counterrallies to try and quell the dissent but people continue to take to the streets across the country.
Security forces have also launched a series of raids on schools across Iran, violently arresting students, especially female students, who have defiantly taken off their hijabs in protest.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said that as of January 29, at least 527 people had been killed during the unrest, including 71 minors, as security forces muzzle dissent.