PARIS: At least 92 people were killed as Iran cracked down on women-led protests over the death of Mahsa Amini After she was arrested by the notorious ethics police, the Iranian Human Rights group said on Sunday.
As the protests dragged on into a third week, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Sunday that Iran’s “enemies” had “failed their plot”.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish man, was pronounced dead on September 16 after she was detained for allegedly violating a rule requiring women to wear a headscarf and simple clothing. strange, sparking Iran’s biggest wave of unrest in nearly three years.
The Oslo-based IHR also said 41 more people died in Friday’s clashes in Iran’s far southeastern region, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Oslo-based IHR also said, citing local news sources. Those protests were sparked by allegations that a police chief in the area raped an underage girl from the Baluch Sunni minority, it said.
Demonstrations in solidarity with Iranian women – who have defied the burning of the hijab that they have been required to wear since the Islamic revolution in 1979 – have been held around the world, with demonstrations in more than 150 cities on Saturday.
In Iran itself, clashes between protesters and security forces have rocked cities across the country for 16 consecutive nights after they broke out for the first time in the western regions, the birthplace of Iran. lives of the Amini and the Kurdish minority of Iran.
The newspaper said that “rioters” and “thugs”, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails, attacked the Tehran headquarters of Iran’s top ultra-conservative daily Kayhan on Saturday, the newspaper said. whose director is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam called on the international community to take urgent steps against the Islamic republic to stop the killing of Iranian protesters, calling them a “crime against humanity”.
At least 92 protesters during the Mahsa Amini protests have been killed so far, IHR said, saying IHR is working to assess the death toll despite the outage and Internet blocking on WhatsApp, Instagram and other online services.
London-based Amnesty International said earlier it had confirmed 53 deaths, after Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said last week “about 60” people had died.
On Sunday, the official IRNA news agency said a paramilitary man “stabbed” during “recent riots” in the Shiite holy city of Qom south of Tehran died in hospital. .
Tehran has also been battling unrest in the southeast of the country, and it said five Revolutionary Guard members were killed in Friday’s clashes in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province. .
The poverty-stricken region is frequented by clashes with minority Baluchi rebels, Sunni Muslim extremist groups and drug cartels.
The IHR accused the security forces of the predominantly Shiite nation of “bloody suppression” of the protest in Zahedan that erupted after Friday prayers over alleged police chiefs in the provincial port city of Chabahar. This man raped a 15-year-old girl.
A Sunni preacher, Molavi Abdol Hamid, on Wednesday warned the community to be “incited” by the rape allegations.
Iran has accused outside forces of inciting protests across the country, especially the United States and its allies, and on Friday the intelligence ministry said nine foreign nationals – including from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland – were arrested.
The unrest comes as Iran seeks to reinstate a 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other powers to end sanctions that have gripped its oil-rich economy and seen South Korea, China and Japan froze billions of dollars in Iranian funds.
The landmark Vienna agreement – which once promised to ease sanctions in return for strict nuclear controls – has gone bad since then. Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018, and Iran subsequently reneged on its own commitments.
“At a time when the Islamic republic was overcoming its economic problems … the enemy played with the intention of isolating the country, but they failed in this plot,” Raisi said on Sunday.
In a rare concession, Iran allowed a detained Iranian-American, Baquer Namazi, 85, to leave the country and free his son. Siamak Namazi50 years old, out of custody, the United Nations confirmed on Saturday.
Baquer Namazi is a former UNICEF official who was detained in February 2016 when he traveled to Iran to press release Siamak, who was arrested the previous October.
Both were found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Iran’s state media said on Sunday that after the prisoner’s release, Iran is now awaiting the release of some $7 billion in funds held abroad.
As the protests dragged on into a third week, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Sunday that Iran’s “enemies” had “failed their plot”.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish man, was pronounced dead on September 16 after she was detained for allegedly violating a rule requiring women to wear a headscarf and simple clothing. strange, sparking Iran’s biggest wave of unrest in nearly three years.
The Oslo-based IHR also said 41 more people died in Friday’s clashes in Iran’s far southeastern region, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Oslo-based IHR also said, citing local news sources. Those protests were sparked by allegations that a police chief in the area raped an underage girl from the Baluch Sunni minority, it said.
Demonstrations in solidarity with Iranian women – who have defied the burning of the hijab that they have been required to wear since the Islamic revolution in 1979 – have been held around the world, with demonstrations in more than 150 cities on Saturday.
In Iran itself, clashes between protesters and security forces have rocked cities across the country for 16 consecutive nights after they broke out for the first time in the western regions, the birthplace of Iran. lives of the Amini and the Kurdish minority of Iran.
The newspaper said that “rioters” and “thugs”, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails, attacked the Tehran headquarters of Iran’s top ultra-conservative daily Kayhan on Saturday, the newspaper said. whose director is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam called on the international community to take urgent steps against the Islamic republic to stop the killing of Iranian protesters, calling them a “crime against humanity”.
At least 92 protesters during the Mahsa Amini protests have been killed so far, IHR said, saying IHR is working to assess the death toll despite the outage and Internet blocking on WhatsApp, Instagram and other online services.
London-based Amnesty International said earlier it had confirmed 53 deaths, after Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said last week “about 60” people had died.
On Sunday, the official IRNA news agency said a paramilitary man “stabbed” during “recent riots” in the Shiite holy city of Qom south of Tehran died in hospital. .
Tehran has also been battling unrest in the southeast of the country, and it said five Revolutionary Guard members were killed in Friday’s clashes in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province. .
The poverty-stricken region is frequented by clashes with minority Baluchi rebels, Sunni Muslim extremist groups and drug cartels.
The IHR accused the security forces of the predominantly Shiite nation of “bloody suppression” of the protest in Zahedan that erupted after Friday prayers over alleged police chiefs in the provincial port city of Chabahar. This man raped a 15-year-old girl.
A Sunni preacher, Molavi Abdol Hamid, on Wednesday warned the community to be “incited” by the rape allegations.
Iran has accused outside forces of inciting protests across the country, especially the United States and its allies, and on Friday the intelligence ministry said nine foreign nationals – including from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland – were arrested.
The unrest comes as Iran seeks to reinstate a 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other powers to end sanctions that have gripped its oil-rich economy and seen South Korea, China and Japan froze billions of dollars in Iranian funds.
The landmark Vienna agreement – which once promised to ease sanctions in return for strict nuclear controls – has gone bad since then. Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018, and Iran subsequently reneged on its own commitments.
“At a time when the Islamic republic was overcoming its economic problems … the enemy played with the intention of isolating the country, but they failed in this plot,” Raisi said on Sunday.
In a rare concession, Iran allowed a detained Iranian-American, Baquer Namazi, 85, to leave the country and free his son. Siamak Namazi50 years old, out of custody, the United Nations confirmed on Saturday.
Baquer Namazi is a former UNICEF official who was detained in February 2016 when he traveled to Iran to press release Siamak, who was arrested the previous October.
Both were found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Iran’s state media said on Sunday that after the prisoner’s release, Iran is now awaiting the release of some $7 billion in funds held abroad.
