(Reuters) – Mahsa Amini’s father was briefly detained on Saturday, according to human rights groups, amid heightened security on the first anniversary of his daughter’s death, which sparked months of anti-government protests.
Amjad Amini was warned not to commemorate the anniversary of his daughter’s death before being released, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network said. Iran’s official news agency IRNA denied Amjad Amini’s arrest, without specifying whether he was briefly detained or given a warning.
Earlier, social media and human rights groups reported that security forces had deployed around Amini’s house in Saqez, western Iran.
The death in custody of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman on September 16, 2022, arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, sparked months of protests that became the largest opposition movement to the regime in decades. years.
Many have called for an end to more than four decades of Shiite religious rule.
According to messages on social media, Mahsa Amini’s parents said earlier this week that, despite government warnings, they would hold a “traditional and religious birthday ceremony” at their daughter’s grave in Saqez, his hometown.
Human rights groups say large security forces were deployed to Iran’s Kurdish-majority areas on Saturday in anticipation of unrest.
Widespread strikes were also reported in several cities in Iran’s Kurdistan region.
However, IRNA said Saqez was “completely calm” and that calls for strikes in Kurdish areas had failed due to “the vigilance of the population and the presence of security forces and military forces.”
It quotes a Kurdistan provincial official as saying: “A number of agents affiliated with counter-revolutionary groups who had planned to create chaos and prepare events for the media were arrested in the early hours of the morning.”
During the protests that followed Amini’s death, more than 500 people, including 71 minors, were killed, according to human rights organizations, who also reported hundreds injured and thousands injured. arrests. Iran has carried out seven executions linked to the unrest.
In a report released last month, Amnesty International said Iranian authorities were “subjecting victims’ families to arbitrary arrests and detention, imposing cruel restrictions on peaceful gatherings at grave sites, and destroying victims’ tombstones.”
According to Iranian and Western human rights groups, many journalists, lawyers, activists, students, academics, artists, public figures and members of ethnic minorities accused of having links to the protest wave, as well as relatives of demonstrators killed during the unrest have been arrested, summoned, threatened or fired in recent weeks.
Iranian daily Etemad reported in August that Amini’s family lawyer was also accused of “propaganda against the system.” If convicted, Saleh Nikbakht faces a prison sentence of one to three years.
(Written by Toby Chopra and Alex Richardson, French version Benjamin Mallet)
©2023 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.