Iranian agents blocked care for wounded anti-regime protesters at hospitals, doctors say |
BEIRUT (AP) — As wounded anti-government protesters poured into an Iranian hospital during last month’s crackdown, a young doctor hurried to the emergency room to help treat a man in his 40s who had been shot in the head at close range.
When the doctor and others tried to resuscitate the man, a group of armed, plainclothes security agents blocked their way, pushing some back with their rifles, the doctor told The Associated Press.
“They surrounded him and didn’t allow us to move further,” the doctor in the northern city of Rasht said.
Minutes later, the man was dead. The agents put his body in a black body bag. Later, they piled it and other bodies into the back of a van and drove away.
This wasn’t an isolated incident.
Over the course of a few days in early January, plainclothes Iranian agents in multiple cities swarmed hospitals that were treating the thousands wounded by Iranian security forces who fired on crowds to quash massive protests against the 47-year-old Islamic Republic. These agents monitored and sometimes obstructed care to protesters, intimidated staff, seized protesters and took away the dead in body bags. Dozens of doctors were arrested.
This story is based on Associated Press interviews with three doctors in Iran and six Iranian medical professionals living abroad who are in contact with colleagues on the ground; reports from human rights groups; and AP’s verification of more than a dozen videos posted on social media. All of the doctors inside Iran spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
The AP worked with Mnemonic, a Berlin-based organization that focuses on digital information related to human rights, to identify online videos, posts and other material relating to violence in hospitals.
The doctors in Iran and abroad said the level of brutality and militarization of health facilities was unprecedented in a country that for decades has experienced crackdowns on dissent and surveillance of public institutions.
The Iran Human Rights Center, based in Oslo, has documented multiple accounts from inside hospitals of security agents preventing medical care, removing patients from ventilators, harassing doctors and detaining protesters who took part in the mass anti-regime demonstrations.
The crackdown on the demonstrations, which reached its height on January 8 and 9, was the deadliest since the Islamic Republic took power in 1979. Details have been slow to emerge because of internet restrictions imposed by authorities.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency says it confirmed more than 7,000 deaths and that it is investigating thousands more. Estimates of the toll from human rights groups range into the tens of thousands.
The government has acknowledged more than 3,000 killed, though it has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest. It has blamed the protests and ensuing violence on armed foreign-backed “terrorists.”
The crackdown prompted US President Donald Trump to threaten a strike on Iran. American forces have since amassed in the region, including some in Israel, while the US and Iran conduct negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran has said it would strike Israel and US targets in the region if attacked.
Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour denied reports of treatment being prevented or protesters being taken from hospitals, calling them “untrue, but also fundamentally impossible.”
He was quoted in state media as saying all injured were treated “without any discrimination or interference over political opinions.” The Iranian mission at the United Nations did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the doctors’ accounts.
Once the crackdown began, the doctor in Rasht said he worked through 66 hours of hell, moving each day to a different facility to help with the wounded — first a trauma center, then a hospital and finally a private clinic.
Armed agents brought in wounded protesters and stood watch over them as staff worked, the doctor said. When it came time to discharge a patient, he said, “They would take anyone who was confirmed to be a protester.”
The doctor said he and other staff tried to hide wounded protesters by recording false diagnoses in hospital records.
“We knew that no matter what we did for the patients, they wouldn’t be safe once they stepped out of the hospital,” he said.
The AP could not independently confirm the doctor’s account of events at the hospital in Rasht. But it conformed with AP’s other reporting.
AP’s reporting focused on what happened at four hospitals, a snapshot of the Iranian security forces’ activity.
Mnemonic gathered dozens of videos, posts and other accounts it says showed forces were present in and around nine hospitals, in some cases firing guns and tear gas. Mnemonic has been preserving digital evidence of human rights violations in Iran since 2022, another year that saw mass protests, creating with partners an archive of more than 2 million documents.
One video verified by AP shows security agents breaking through glass entrance doors into Imam Khomeini Hospital in the western city of Ilam. They then barged through the halls with their guns, yelling at people.
The Health Ministry told state media it was investigating the incident, saying it was committed to protecting medical centers, staff and patients.
On the night of January 8, a 37-year-old general surgeon was out for dinner in Tehran when he received a call from a professional friend, an ophthalmologist. The fear in her voice made clear she needed his help urgently. She gave him an address.
Just before midnight, he drove to the address, a clinic for cosmetic procedures. Inside, he found the lobby transformed into a trauma ward, with more than 30 wounded men, women, children and elderly on the couches and blood-covered floor, shouting and crying,
The surgeon spent nearly four days there, treating more than 90 people, he estimates. At first, it was just him, the ophthalmologist, a dentist and two nurses. Eventually, the surgeon summoned three other doctors to help.
He used cardboard boxes and pieces of soft metal as splints for broken bones. With no anesthesia or strong painkillers, he used weaker suppository analgesics. The clinic had no blood supplies or transfusion capabilities.
They couldn’t send patients to hospitals for fear they’d be arrested.
A young man in his 20s had been shot with live ammunition in his elbow, shattering it. The surgeon sutured the wounds but knew the arm would have to be amputated.
A family of four — a mother, father and their 8- and 10-year-old children — were all riddled with pellets, the surgeon said.
On the morning of January 9, the surgeon reached out to doctors he trusted to refer patients to them. First, he had to make sure to remove all bullets and pellets from their bodies so they wouldn’t be detained at the hospital. He wrote referral letters saying the patients had been in car accidents.
None of the wounded died at the clinic, he said. The AP could not independently confirm the surgeon’s account of events at the clinic.
Since January 9, at least 79 health care professionals have been detained, including a dozen medical students, according to Homa Fathi, an Iranian dentist pursuing a Ph.D. in Canada and a member of the International Independent Physicians and Healthcare Providers Association who has been monitoring Iranian government action against health professionals since 2022.
Around 30 have been released, most on bail, but many of them still face charges, including one accused of “waging war against God,” a charge that carries a death penalty, Fathi said.
The surgeon who treated protesters at the secret clinic said he was surprised security forces never stormed that location to make arrests.
But arrests have come since. Two health care workers who volunteered at the clinic were seized from their homes, the surgeon said, adding, “I am waiting, too.”
If so, we have a request.
Every day during the past two years of war and rising global anti-Zionism and antisemitism, our journalists kept you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. Millions of people rely on ToI for fact-based coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
We care about Israel - and we know you do too. So we have an ask for this new year of 2026: express your values by joining The Times of Israel Community, an exclusive group for readers like you who appreciate and financially support our work.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you'll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
1 AnalysisIran would be outgunned in war with the US, but could still inflict considerable pain
2 US, Iran said to agree on further talks next week, as mediator claims progress
3 IDF to relocate 11 bases from central Israel to free up land for real estate
4 Inside storyAs Israel plans two new airports, experts say proposed site near Gaza won’t fly
5 AnalysisDespite overwhelming US military might, Iran campaign would pose complex challenges
6 Deep diveChecks, charities, conversion classes: What the Epstein files reveal about his Jewish world
7 Departing Israel, Modi says there’s ‘no place for terrorism,’ praises Gaza peace plan
8 Progressive Jews sound alarm over bill cementing Orthodox control of Western Wall
Human Rights Activists News Agency HRANA