ReutersFamilies of people killed in protests in Iran have told the BBC that authorities are demanding large sums of money to return their bodies for burial.
Several sources told BBC Persian that the bodies are being held in mortuaries and hospitals and the security forces will not release them unless their relatives give money.
At least 2,435 people have died in more than two weeks of protests across the country.
A family in the northern city of Rasht told the BBC that security forces had demanded 700 million tomans ($5,000; £3,700) to release the body of their loved one.
It was held at the Poursina Hospital mortuary, along with at least 70 other dead protesters, they said.
Meanwhile in Tehran, the family of a Kurdish seasonal construction worker went to collect his body, only to be told they would have to pay a billion tomans ($7,000; £5,200) to receive it.
The family told the BBC they could not afford the payment and were forced to leave without their son’s body. A construction worker in Iran usually earns less than $100 a month.
In some cases, hospital staff called the relatives of the dead to give them an advance warning to come and collect the bodies before the security forces could extort any funds.
BBC Persian was told about a WOMAN – whom we did not recognize for her safety – who did not know that her husband had been killed until she received a phone call on 9 January on her phone from the hospital staff.
They told him that he had to go quickly and collect his body before the security forces came and demanded payment for its release.
BBC Persian was told about this situation by a relative based in London, who spoke to him.
The woman then took her two children to the hospital to find her husband’s body. He put her in the back of a pickup truck, and drove seven hours to their hometown in western Iran to bury her.
“I rode in the back of the pickup truck, crying over his body for seven hours while my children sat in the front seat,” she told her relatives in London.
BBC Persian has also received reports that officials at the Behesht-e Zahra mortuary in Tehran have told families that if they admit that their son was a member of the Basij paramilitary force and was killed by protesters, the body will be released free of charge.
The family member told the BBC in a message: “We were asked to participate in a pro-government rally and describe the body as a martyr. We did not agree to this.”
In another case in Tehran, a source told BBC Persian that many families entered a funeral home to retrieve the bodies out of fear that they would be taken away by the authorities.
“Many families, fearing that the authorities would hide the bodies or bury them without their knowledge, broke down the door of the morgue and pulled the bodies out of the ambulances,” the source told the BBC.
The families then kept the bodies for several hours on the ground in the hospital grounds so they could not be taken away until they could find private ambulances to take them away, the source said.
The internet and communications blackout made it difficult to get the full picture of what was happening on the ground. International human rights groups do not have direct access to the country and, along with other international news organizations, the BBC is not allowed by the Iranian government to report on the ground.
Demonstrations began in the capital, Tehran, on 29 December, following a sharp devaluation of the Iranian currency against the dollar. As the protests spread to dozens of other towns and cities, they turned against Iran’s clerical rulers and security forces launched a brutal crackdown.
The protests escalated last Thursday and were met with deadly force by the authorities.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 2,435 protesters have been killed since the unrest began, as well as 13 children and 153 people affiliated with security forces or the government. It reported that another 18,470 protesters were arrested.
Meanwhile, arrests continue across the country. Security forces and intelligence units of the Revolutionary Guard detained activists, lawyers, and ordinary citizens.