Iran: Teen protester Nika Shakarami's body stolen, sources say

Iranian security forces stole the body of a 16-year-old protester, and buried her secretly in a village, sources close to the family told BBC Persian.

The family had planned to bury Nika Shakarami on Monday, but her body was snatched and buried in a village about 40km (25 miles) away, the sources said.

Nika went missing for 10 days after protesting in Tehran on 20 September.

In her last message to a friend she said she was being chased by security forces, her aunt told BBC Persian.

Nika's family finally found her body in a morgue at a detention centre in the capital.

"When we went to identify her, they didn't allow us to see her body, only her face for a few seconds," said Atash Shakarami, Nika's aunt.

Nika's family transferred her body to her father's hometown of Khorramabad in the west of the country on Sunday - on what would have been her 17th birthday.

Under duress the family agreed not to hold a funeral but security forces "stole" Nika's body from Khorramabad and buried it in the village of Veysian, one source said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Khorramabad cemetery and chanted slogans against the government, including "death to the dictator" - a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Atash, who posted about Nika on her social media accounts, was arrested on Sunday when security forces raided her house, a source said.

The security forces threatened to kill Atash if anyone in the family took part in protests, the source added.

The authorities have a history of using the bodies of protesters as bargaining chips to silence the families of victims.

Hadis Najafi, a 22 year-old protester shot dead by security forces in Karaj near Tehran on 21 September, is one example.

Hadis' sisters say she was shot in the head and neck with live ammunition and also birdshot fired from a shotgun. Two pictures of her body show birdshot wounds.

"They wouldn't return the body for two days, asking her father to say she had died of a heart attack out of fear," two sources close to the family told BBC Persian.

In a final video message Hadis sent to her friends, which BBC Persian obtained, she says: "I hope in a few years when I look back, I will be happy that everything has changed for the better."

She was shot dead almost an hour after recording this message, her family said.