A young man in Western Iran was found dead shortly after posting a video of himself burning a photo of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in an incident police called suicide but social media users branded a state killing.
The police commander of Sarlak's hometown Aligoudarz in Lorestan province announced on Sunday that the body of a young man had been found inside a vehicle near Araslan Goodarzi Stadium, without mentioning his identity.
Ali Asadollahi said the man had “taken his own life with a handgun,” adding that the case was under forensic police investigation to determine motive and exact cause.
Several social media users identified the young man as Omid Sarlak, saying that authorities had refused to hand over his body to his family and were pressuring them to confirm the official suicide narrative.
Users shared screenshots of Sarlak’s final Instagram stories. In one, he posted a video of Khamenei’s photo being set on fire, overlaid with audio of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
In another story, accompanied by the hashtag “Death to Khamenei,” Sarlak wrote:
“How long should we endure humiliation, poverty, and being ridden over? This is the moment to show yourself, young people. These clerics are nothing but a stream for Iran’s youth to cross.”
He added: “Instead of posting stories about imaginary enemies, show yourself now. This is the same moment you used to say, ‘If God is with us, no enemy matters.’ Here’s the field—prove yourselves. Doesn’t every city have four brave young people? I’ll be the first to come out.”
Shahram Sadidi, a poet and political activist from Sabzevar, posted photos of Sarlak on X and wrote: “He posted these stories and went to the streets. A few hours later, his bullet-riddled body was found in a car. The family still hasn’t received the body and is being forced to say it was suicide.”
Another user called him a “patriotic Bakhtiari youth” and claimed he was killed “under torture by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry” nine hours after posting
A different user wrote that Sarlak was arrested by the IRGC Intelligence Organization and “his bruised, tortured body was later returned to his family.”
Iran International cannot immediately verify the allegations.
Judicial and security officials have not yet issued any new clarification on the circumstances of Sarlak’s death, and the lack of transparency has fueled further questions.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly attributed suspicious deaths to suicide in recent years—an explanation widely rejected by the public, who often respond sarcastically with the phrase “he was suicided.”
One example was the case of former political prisoner Sara Tabrizi, whose body was found at her parents’ home in Tehran last year, after weeks of heavy pressure and interrogation by security agents.
