In a column last month, I indulged in some gallows humor about a news article headed, “Death of an Iran prison doctor raises suspicion.” The article began, “An Iranian doctor who treated victims of torture at Tehran’s most feared prison has died, amid conflicting reports of a heart attack, a car accident or suicide — raising opposition accusations that the 26-year-old was killed.”
I said, “Um, what do you think, dear readers? Heart attack, car accident, suicide — or something else? Don’t bet the ranch on anything other than ‘something else.’ (You recall those poor people in the Communist bloc who pushed themselves out windows, right? And the ones who shot themselves in the head — three or four times?)”
Anyway, there is a follow-up: An article today says, “A doctor who blew the whistle on the torture of jailed protesters in Iran died of poisoning from an overdose of an anti-hypertension drug in his salad, prosecutors say, fueling opposition fears that he was killed because of what he knew about the abuse.”