Reza Moradi dies after being shot during Azna protests, bringing toll to six

Hengaw – Monday, January 5, 2026 

Reza Moradi Abdolvand, an 18-year-old Lor resident of Azna in Lorestan Province, has died after spending five days in a coma caused by gunshot wounds inflicted by Iranian government forces during protests in the city. His death brings the number of people killed in connection with the Azna protests to six. 

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Moradi Abdolvand, an auto body repair worker, succumbed to the severity of his injuries on Monday, January 5, 2026, while hospitalized. 

He was shot twice on Thursday evening, January 1, 2026, during protests in Azna and was transferred to Valian Hospital, where he remained in intensive care until his death. 

As in previous cases, government institutions have refused to hand over his body to the family and have pressured them to identify their son as a member of the “Basij.” 

It was also reported that during the four days Moradi Abdolvand was hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Valian Hospital in Aligudarz, only his mother was allowed to visit him, and then only for a few minutes. Government forces had barred access to his hospital room throughout this period. 

With his death, the number of people killed in Azna has risen to six. Hengaw had previously reported the killing of five others in the city: 15-year-old Taha Safari, 15-year-old Mostafa Fallahi, 30-year-old Shayan Asadollahi, 28-year-old Ahmadreza Amani, and Vahab Mousavi. 

Hengaw has learned that government institutions in Azna have so far returned only the body of Shayan Asadollahi to his family, and only on the condition that he be buried in absolute silence, with a limited number of close relatives present, in his home village. The bodies of the other victims have not yet been handed over, and their families remain under pressure to state that their children were members of the “Basij” or that they died in a “traffic accident.”