Islamic Republic officials are allegedly demanding large payments from grieving families before releasing the bodies of relatives killed in ongoing protests.
Security forces have been holding corpses at hospitals and mortuaries across the country, refusing to hand them over without receiving money from bereaved relatives, according to BBC Persian.
The death toll from more than a fortnight of demonstrations has reached at least 2,435 people, according to figures from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The unrest erupted in Tehran on December 28 following a dramatic collapse in the Iranian currency's value.
The demonstrations quickly spread across Iran, evolving into broader opposition to the clerical leadership and prompting a brutal crackdown by security forces.
In the northern city of Rasht, one family said they were told to pay 700 million tomans (£3,700) to retrieve a relative from Poursina Hospital mortuary, which is said to be holding the remains of at least 70 protesters.
Relatives of a Kurdish seasonal construction worker killed in Tehran said officials demanded 1billion tomans (£5,200) to release his body.
Unable to pay, the family was forced to leave the capital without their son.
The unrest erupted in Tehran on December 28 following a dramatic collapse in the Iranian currency's value
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The sum demanded represents an impossible burden for many poorer Iranians, as construction labourers in the country typically earn less than £75 a month.
Some hospital staff have risked their own safety to help families, calling relatives to warn them to collect bodies before security forces arrive.
One woman, whose identity was not disclosed, only learned of her husband's death when hospital staff called her on January 9 using his phone.
She was urged to arrive immediately before officials could demand money.
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Relatives of a Kurdish construction worker killed in Tehran said officials demanded 1billion tomans (£5,200) to release his body
|GETTY
"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 later told a relative now living in London.
At Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra mortuary, officials reportedly allegedly offered families an alternative - bodies could be released without charge if relatives falsely claimed their loved ones were pro-government Basij paramilitaries killed by demonstrators.
"We were asked to participate in a pro-government rally and portray the body as that of a martyr. We did not agree to this," one family member told the BBC.
Desperation drove several families in Tehran to storm a mortuary, breaking down doors and pulling bodies from ambulances.
President Donald Trump said he had been informed the killing of protesters in Iran was 'stopping'
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"Several families, fearing that the authorities might keep the bodies or bury them without their knowledge, broke open the morgue door and pulled the bodies out of ambulances," a source told the BBC.
President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he had been informed the killing of protesters in Iran was "stopping".
On Thursday, the Islamic Republic reopened its airspace after a sudden closure on Wednesday night caused flight chaos across the region.
However, several airlines have continued to avoid the region amid the ongoing tensions.
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