Iran on Wednesday issued a series of death sentences as women-led protests over Mahsa Amini’s death in custody entered a third month, with clashes reportedly claiming at least seven lives in two days.
That toll did not include six people authorities said were killed by gunmen who attacked protesters and police on Wednesday in the southwestern province of Khuzestan. Street violence raged across Iran as protests sparked by the Sept. 16 death of Amini intensified on the anniversary of a lethal 2019 crackdown.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, died in the custody of the notorious morality police after her arrest for an alleged contravention of Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Photo: AFP
In a video published by the 1500tasvir social media monitor, protesters can be heard chanting: “We’ll fight! We’ll die! We’ll take back Iran!”
In a widely shared and verified video, security forces appear to open fire on dozens of commuters at a Tehran metro station, causing them to scramble and fall over each other on the platform.
Another verified video showed members of the security forces, including plainclothes officers, attacking women without hijab headscarves on an underground train.
Organizers of the protests have called for three days of action to commemorate hundreds killed in the “Bloody Aban” — or Bloody November — demonstrations that erupted on Nov. 15, 2019, after a shock decision to hike fuel prices.
The anniversary gave new momentum to the Amini protests, which have seen women burn their headscarves and confront security forces on the streets.
Iranian state media said “rioters” — a term Iranian officials use to describe protesters — killed two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a member of its Basij paramilitary force on Tuesday.
One guard was shot dead in Bukan, a city in West Azerbaijan Province, and another was gunned down in Kamyaran, a city in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
The Basij member died after being hit by a Molotov cocktail in the southern city of Shiraz, it added.
A protester was killed on Wednesday in front of the house of one of three demonstrators shot dead the day before by the security forces in Kurdistan Province, Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said.
The death of Burhan Karmi occurred in Kamyaran, where tensions were high for the funeral of mobile phone repair shop owner Fuad Mohammadi, the rights group said.
Special forces opened fire on students on Wednesday after entering Kurdistan University in the flashpoint western city of Sanandaj, Hengaw said.
Security forces have killed at least 342 people, including 43 children and 26 women, in the crackdown since Amini’s death, according to the latest toll released by Iran Human Rights (IHR) on Wednesday.
At least 15,000 people have been arrested — a figure the Iranian authorities deny, the rights group said.
Later on Wednesday, “armed and terrorist elements” on two motorcycles opened fire on protesters and security forces at a central market in the city of Izeh in Khuzestan, the IRNA said.
Six people were killed and at least 10 wounded, it said.
Deputy Governor of Khuzestan Valiollah Hayati said the fatalities included three men, a woman and a girl, while some of the wounded were in serious condition.
The Iranian judiciary on Wednesday said that a revolutionary court handed down three more death sentences over the “riots.”
One was convicted of attacking police with his car, killing one, the second had stabbed a security officer and the third had tried to block traffic and spread “terror,” its Web site said.
Another death sentence had been issued on Tuesday, after a court on Sunday handed down the first death sentence in connection with the protests.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam strongly condemned the death sentences, alleging that torture was used to extract confessions, and warning of the possibility of mass executions.
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