Posted Sep 28, 2022, 3:06 PM
This is an ominous warning from the Iranian authorities. On Wednesday, the country’s police command said its units would oppose “with all their might” protesters who have been protesting for 12 days over the death of a young woman arrested by vice police.
“Today, the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and some rioters seek to disrupt the order and security of the nation using all pretexts,” the police command said in a statement.
“The police personnel will oppose with all their strength the conspiracies of counter-revolutionaries and hostile elements and will act firmly everywhere in the country against those who disturb public order and security”, he continued, quoted by the Fars news agency.
Dozens of dead
Protests have been taking place every night since September 16, when 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini died in hospital, three days after she was arrested in Tehran for breaking a strict dress code for women. in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who must cover their hair in public.
According to a latest report given Tuesday by the Fars agency, “about 60 people have been killed” since September 16. Police reported 10 officers dead but it was unclear if these were among the 60 dead. The authorities also reported the arrest of more than 1,200 demonstrators since September 16.
“Separatist groups”
For his part, government spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi announced after the Council of Ministers that “the government was going to ask the judicial authority to compel the authors and instigators of the riots to repair the damage caused to property public” during the demonstrations.
He accused “separatist groups” of supporting the perpetrators of the degradations and indicated that the latter had, according to the Ministry of Intelligence, benefited from “financial support” and “the close cooperation of certain hostile media and social networks which played a role in destroying public property and causing death and injury”.
Quick judgments
Later in the day, Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri announced a circular on measures to be taken against those arrested during the protests, according to Mizan Online, the Judicial Authority’s website.
He called for judgment “with speed, precision and firmness” in particular “those who killed or injured” law enforcement, “having destroyed and set fire to property and private and public buildings”, “activists on the networks (having) incited rioters”, and “foreign nationals who were present in the riots”.
For their part, the parents of Mahsa Amini have filed a complaint against the police who arrested their daughter, said family lawyer Me Saleh Nikbakht, quoted Wednesday by the Isna news agency.
With AFP
