During the Iranian television news, a photo of Ali Khamenei, the body surrounded by flames and the head in a viewfinder, was broadcast.
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© – / Twitter / @EdalateAli1400 / AFP
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UA group supporting the protest in Iran, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, managed to hack into a state television channel by broadcasting an image of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei surrounded by flames in full newspaper. “The blood of our youth is dripping from your fingers,” reads a message that appeared on screen during the Saturday evening broadcast of the state television news. It accompanies a manipulated photo of Ali Khamenei, his body surrounded by flames and his head in a viewfinder.
“It’s time to put your furniture away […] and find you another place to settle your family outside of Iran,” reads another message accompanying the photo. The cyberattack, which lasted seconds, was claimed by a group calling itself Edalat-e Ali (Ali’s Justice), which supports the protest movement, the largest in Iran since the protests against rising prices gasoline in 2019. Several overseas-based Persian language media shared a video showing the cyberattack. At the end of the video, the newscaster can be seen looking tense, his eyes fixed on the camera. In Iran, the Tasnim news agency confirmed that state television had “been hacked for a few moments by anti-revolutionary agents”.
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Iran has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, who died three days after she was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women, including the wearing of the veil. The Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) has reported at least 95 deaths in the crackdown on protests since September 16. According to a latest Iranian report given at the end of September, around 60 people were killed, including around ten police officers.
“We will fight”
On Sunday, appearing on video for the first time since his release on bail on Tuesday, artist Shervin Hajipour, known for his song “Baraye” supporting the movement and having made nearly 40 million views on Instagram, said he wanted only “express sympathy” towards the protesters. The day before, as the movement entered its fourth week, demonstrations took place in several cities and solidarity rallies continued abroad.
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According to Iranian analyst Omid Memarian, a video showed protesters in Tehran shouting “Death to the dictator”. Elsewhere, schoolgirls chanted “Woman, life, freedom”, the rallying cry of protesters, in Saqez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini in the province of Kurdistan (North West), and marched waving their headscarves above their heads, said human rights NGO Hengaw, based in Norway. According to online footage verified by AFP, a large banner placed on a highway overpass through central Tehran reads, “We are no longer afraid. We will fight. »
Two members of the security forces were killed on Saturday during the demonstrations, one in Tehran “by an armed crowd”, and the other in Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan, according to the official Irna agency. The agency confirmed protests in various cities, where demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at mosques, centers of Bassidji, paramilitary militia, and offices of imams of prayer. “In Tehran, the police used tear gas to disperse the crowd,” she said, adding that protesters had “shouted slogans and set fire to and damaged public property, including a police station and trash cans.” .
“With my own eyes”
Iranian authorities said on Friday that Mahsa Amini died of illness and not of “beatings”. But the young woman’s father, Amjad Amini, who claimed his daughter was in good health before her arrest, dismissed the medical report in an interview with Iran International, a Persian-language television channel based in London. “I saw with my own eyes that blood had flowed from Mahsa’s ears and neck,” he said. Activists and NGOs had claimed that she had suffered a head injury during her detention. Iran accuses foreign countries of stoking the protests, including the United States, its sworn enemy.
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