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“He knew there were a lot of confessions against him and he also confessed himself,” Dolatabadi was quoted as saying Sunday by the semi-official ILNA news agency. “Unfortunately, he committed suicide in prison.”

The professor’s son, musician Ramin Seyed-Emami who performs under the stage name King Raam, wrote on Instagram that his father had died following his arrest on Jan. 24.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Samid Lotfi, Center for Human Rights in Iran

“They say he committed suicide. I still can’t believe this,” he wrote.

In an email to The Canadian Press, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said the department is aware of reports of Seyed-Emami’s death, and staff in Turkey are in contact with the family of a Canadian citizen.

“Consular officials in Ankara are working to gather additional information and are providing assistance to the family,” Natasha Nystrom wrote.

“Due to the provisions of the Privacy Act, further details on this case cannot be released.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfBV7dYBwzH/?hl=en&taken-by=kingraam

An Iranian reformist lawmaker, Mahmoud Sadeghi, tweeted that he failed to get information on Seyed-Emami’s death despite calls to “related officials.”

“Some of them refused to comment, some others said we pursued (but) failed to get information,” the lawmaker wrote.

Iran entered the New Year with nationwide protests sweeping across 75 cities and towns. The demonstrations initially focused on Iran’s poor economy despite its nuclear deal with world powers, but quickly spiraled into chants directly challenging Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and its theocratic government.