Iranian security forces opened fire on protesters gathered this Wednesday in the hometown of Mahsa Amini, where thousands of people remembered the young woman’s death, while the justice announced that it had charged another 300 detainees, an NGO reported.
The Norwegian-based human rights group Hengaw reported on Twitter that “security forces fired tear gas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square in Saqez”.
Defying strict security measures, protesters gathered today at the Iranian Kurdistan cemetery, where the young Mahsa was buried. She died on 16 September, aged 22, three days after being detained by the moral police while visiting Tehran with her brother. She was accused of violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, which requires women to wear a veil.
The young woman’s death sparked a wave of protests across the country, led by women who defy the authorities.
The Iranian court announced on Wednesday that it had charged 300 more people. As a result, the official number of people accused of the demonstrations is now over 1,000.
New manifestations
According to human rights activists, security forces warned the girl’s parents not to organize any ceremonies and threatened the couple’s son.
Nearly 2,000 people gathered at the cemetery, which is eight kilometers from the center of Saqez, according to Iranian news agency Fars.
“Woman, life, freedom” and “Death to the dictator” were some of the phrases shouted by hundreds of women and men gathered at the Aichi cemetery in Saqez, in the western province of Kurdistan, according to videos posted on social media.
“This is the year of blood, Seyed Ali will be overthrown,” shouted some protesters in a video that was confirmed by AFP, referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to Hengaw, two Iranian football stars, Ali Daei and Hamed Lak, also traveled to Saqez to participate in the 40-day mourning ceremony.
Isna news agency reported that authorities had shut down the Internet in Saqez “for security reasons” after “tensions and clashes after the ceremony”. Demonstrations also took place in other cities in Kurdistan.
“The enemy and its media are trying to use the 40th day of Mahsa Amini’s death as a pretext to provoke new tensions, but fortunately, the situation in the province is completely stable,” Kurdistan Governor Esmail Koosha said. official IRNA agency.
Demonstrations were also organized in other regions of the country, such as Tehran, Mashhad (northeast) and Ahvaz (southwest), reported the portal 1500tasvir, which documents human rights violations by security forces.
In an event unrelated to the protests that rock the country, 15 people died today and dozens were injured in the city of Shiraz (south) in a terrorist attack against a Shiite place of worship, claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). ).
Brutal repression
The repression of protests in the country left at least 141 dead, including children, according to an updated report by the NGO Iran Humans Rights (IHR). Several protesters were detained, including university professors, journalists and celebrities.
According to Amnesty International, 23 children died in the repression of the protests. The IHR cites 29 minors killed.
UN human rights experts called for “a thorough and independent investigation and accountability for those responsible”.
The United States today announced economic sanctions against Iranian officials and companies for their violent crackdown on protests. The White House later expressed concern that Moscow was “advising Iran on good practices for managing protests based on extensive experience in cracking down” on opponents.
Twelve foreign ministers, led by Canadian Melanie Joly, condemned the crackdown on the demonstrations: “We feel a responsibility to echo the voices of Iranian women.”
The government of Iran, in turn, announced sanctions against people, institutions and media in the European Union, in response to measures imposed by Brussels against Iranian authorities and the moral police due to the repression.
