Iranian authorities ordered an investigation on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 after the release of a video showing police officers violently beating a man, who testifies, according to human rights groups, to the brutality of the ongoing crackdown.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested three days earlier by vice police for allegedly breaking a strict dress code. of the Islamic Republic providing for the wearing of the veil.
The repression of these demonstrations, unprecedented in their scale and nature since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, left dozens dead, according to NGOs.
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“Violent and unregulated behavior”
A short video, taken with a mobile phone and published overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday on social networks, shows a dozen members of the security forces beating and kicking a man in the floor.
The man initially tries to protect his head with his hands but the policemen continue to beat him. We hear the sound of a shot then a policeman seems to run over him with his motorbike. The brigade finally abandons the lifeless body.
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“A special order was immediately issued to investigate the exact time and location of the incident and identify the offenders“, announced the police in a press release published by the official agency Irna. “The police absolutely do not condone violent and unregulated behavior and will deal with violatorsin accordance with the law, according to the same source.
“No limits”
The human rights organization Amnesty International nevertheless denounced “crimes“committed in all”impunity“. “This shocking video sent from Tehran is yet another gruesome reminder that the cruelty of Iran’s security forces knows no boundsAmnesty said.
In a context “of impunity, they have carte blanche to hit and shoot demonstratorsshe added, calling on the UN Human Rights Council tourgently investigate these crimes“. According to a new report from the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) based in Norway, 176 people have been killed in the repression of the demonstrations since September. And 101 lost their lives in a separate wave of protests in Zahedan, in the province of Sistan-Balochistan (southeast).
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IHR warned the toll could be higher as it took time to gather the information due to internet disruptions caused by authorities. Thousands of people have been arrested across the country, according to human rights activists.
The judicial system has reported that 1,000 people have already been charged for their alleged participation in the “riots“, term generally used by the authorities to speak of the demonstrations. The first trial linked to the protests, of five men charged with capital offenses, opened in Tehran on Saturday.
“Regime deadlocked”
“Instead of accepting the demands (…) of the people, the Islamic Republic (responds) with repressive measures and sham trials“, lambasted Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the IHR. “The charges and sentences have no legal validity and their sole purpose is to commit more violence to create fear in society.“, he added.
The death of Amini was the spark of the demonstrations whose women, at the beginning, took the head, burning their veil, castigating the authorities, joined by schoolgirls or students. Iran has experienced social explosions in recent decades, but the particularity of the current movement is in particular to have broken taboos, by challenging the regime.
As the death toll of protesters rises, funerals and mourning ceremonies, traditionally held on the 40th day following a death, “increasingly become the impetus for new troublessays Kita Fitzpatrick, Iran analyst at the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project. “The regime is at an impasse: it risks supporting the protest movement in spite of itself by trying to repress it violently“, she believes.
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