A memorial service was held on Sunday at a Persian-speaking church in Sweden to commemorate the death of a congregant who was among those killed during the recent protests.

Ehsan Afshari-Manesh, 39, who arrived in Sweden as a refugee 15 years ago and later became a Swedish citizen, returned to Iran last year to visit his elderly parents but according to his pastor was prevented from returning unless he completed his military service.

And so Ehsan stayed, and when the protests broke out on 28 December, he was among those who joined in, with his last photograph on social media showing him among the demonstrators.

Then, like so many others, when Ehsan didn’t return home, his family started looking for him, even visiting the Swedish embassy to see if they had any news about him.

Finally, 11 days after his disappearance, Ehsan’s body was found, but according to Swedish newspaper Dagen his face was “unrecognisable because it was completely shattered” and therefore he could only be identified by the tattoos on his back and shoulders.

Ehsan’s pastor, Hossein Bahrami, told Dagen he had also been shot twice in the stomach.

Ehsan, who leaves behind a four-year-old daughter, was buried in Tehran last week, and on Sunday his church in Västerås, Sweden, held its own memorial service.

“It is so terrible,” Pastor Bahrami told Dagen. “We as Christians are not called to curse anyone, but to bless everyone, but in this situation it is difficult to open our mouths. People are mourning him both here in Sweden and in Iran.

“There are so many people dying in Iran, including many Christians. Ehsan is one of them.”