JAKARTA - French authorities launched an investigation into the discovery of the body of an Iranian man in Lyon City, after a video post on social media said he would commit suicide to attract attention to the crackdown on protesters in his country.
Mohammad Moradi, 38, was found in the French Rhone river, which flows through Lyon center, on Monday evening, a police official said, launching The National News from AFP December 28.
Emergency services were unsuccessful in rescuing him by the river, the official said.
"When you see this, I'm dead," Moradi said in the video.
"I (have) decided to commit suicide in the Rhone River. It is a challenge to show that we, the Iranian people, are very tired of this situation."
"Killing myself was not for personal reasons. Police attacked people; we have lost many sons and daughters. We have to do something."
Moradi, a history student who works in a restaurant, has lived in France with his wife for three years.
Prosecutors in Lyon said they had launched an investigation to "verify the suicide theory, particularly the message uploaded by the person concerned on the social network announcing its intention" to take his life.
The incident shocked the city, with a small demonstration in memory of Moradi taking place on the edge of Rhone on Tuesday. The mourners laid candles and wreaths on the riverbank fence.
Moradi's death was followed by the outpouring of support from Iranians, journalists and online activists during a hashtag with his name circulating on social media in Farsi and English.
"Mohammad Moradi committed suicide so that the sound of revolution was heard in Iran. Our voices were not carried by the western media," said Timothee Amini of Iran's local community.
"His heart is beating for Iran; he can no longer bear the regime," he continued.
While the Ukraine conflict is covered "every morning", people hear "very little about Iran" in the news, Amini said.
Lili Mohadjer said Moradi hoped "her death will be another element for the media and the Western government to support Iran's ongoing revolution".
He said his death was "not suicide" but "criminal for freedom".
Moradi said in the video that he "cannot live peacefully, comfortably here, where he is very well integrated", while Iranians were killed, Mohadjer said.
It is known, President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran would show no mercy towards the hostile nation's opponents, who had experienced more than 100 days of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death.
Amini, 22, died in a moral police custody after she was arrested and accused of violating strict dress codes for women in Iran.
At least 100 Iranians arrested in more than 100 days of national protests face charges punishable by death, Oslo-based Iranian human rights group said Tuesday.
In early December, Iran's main security agency reported more than 200 people were killed, including security officers. Meanwhile, the United Nations last month said at least 14,000 people had been arrested since the national unrest began.
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