Iran to hold public trials of 1,000 people accused of participating in anti-Mahsa Amini protests



CNN

Iran indicts about 1,000 people in Tehran province for their alleged involvement nationwide protests caused Death of Mahsa Amini is in police custody, state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.

The trials of the defendants will be held publicly in the coming days, IRNA reported, citing Tehran Province Chief Justice Ali al-Qasi Mehra. Iranian media reported over the weekend that the trials of several demonstrators began last week.

People who “have serious charges, including assaulting or martyring guards, as well as setting fire to state property… have been brought before the Revolutionary Court,” Mehr said, IRNA reported.

Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.

The number of indictees in Tehran province on Saturday stood at 315, according to a separate tally by state news agency ISNA, which also said more than 700 people were indicted in other provinces of Iran.

This was reported by the Iranian authorities. intensify efforts put an end to the uprising that has been going on in the country for more than six weeks.

Nationwide demonstrations were first sparked by the death of Mahsa (also known as Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in mid-September after being detained by the national vice police. Since then, protesters across Iran have coalesced around a range of grievances against the regime.

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, told demonstrators on Saturday that this would be their last day on the streets.

“Put off evil. Today is the last day of the riots. Don’t go outside anymore. What more do you want from these people’s lives?” he said during a funeral procession in Shiraz.

Salami called the protests a “conspiracy” that is “the product of the combined police forces of the United States, England, Saudi Arabia and the Zionist regime” – a message that has been repeatedly used by the regime.

“Don’t turn the university into an American battlefield against the nation,” Salami said, adding that “a few students echo foreign voices.”

Iranian authorities are trying to put an end to weeks of protests.

Despite Salami’s warning, students continued to protest en masse on Sunday at several of the country’s top universities.

Videos obtained by CNN show violent clashes erupting between security forces and protesting students.

One of those arrested on Sunday was Toumaj Salehi, an underground Iranian rapper known for his lyrics against the Islamic Republic, according to IRNA.

Tumaj, who goes by his own name, has been accused of “propaganda against the government, collaborating with hostile governments and creating illegal groups to create instability in the country,” the agency said, citing the Isfahan provincial judiciary.

According to Fars News, he was arrested in the provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiar, west of Isfahan in southwestern Iran.

IRNA released a photo of Toumaj blindfolded in the back seat of a car.

“The accused played a key role in organizing, instigating and encouraging unrest in the province of Isfahan and in the city of Shahin Shahr,” IRNA reported.

Tumaj has become known as a prominent voice in the protests, tweeting calls for demonstrations and posting videos of protests from across the country.

The text of the last clip published on their YouTube page on October 24 they sing: “Someone’s crime was that she danced with her hair in the wind. Someone’s crime was that he or she was brave and criticized… 44 years of your power. It’s a year of failure.”

A post on his official Twitter account confirmed the news of the rapper’s arrest. An administrator outside of Iran claimed to have received Tumaj’s permission to post on his behalf and keep the account active.