By Tony O ‘Reilly-
Eight prisoners died as a result of a fire at Tehran’s Evin prison over the weekend, Iran’s judiciary said on Monday, raising the death toll from a blaze that has increased pressure on the government, as it struggles to contain mass protests.
A wave of protests was sparked after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died in custody on Sept. 16 after she was apprehended by Iran’s morality police for “inappropriate attire”, sparked a wave of protests that spread rapidly and to all layers of society. The ensuing mayhem arising from the protest has become one of the most confrontational and challenging to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with protesters calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic.
The fire erupted as nationwide anti-government protests triggered by the death of Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police entered a fifth successive week. Tensions have escalated to a point unseen since the mass demonstrations that accompanied the country’s 2009 Green Movement protests.
The protests started with calls for an end to the compulsory hijab and the withdrawal of the morality police from the streets, but the social movement has grown into a broader rebellion against the Iran’s bullish and wicked regime. Students at Tehran University students chanted “Tehran has become a detention centre, Evin has become a slaughterhouse.”
Iran’s judiciary said the blaze on Saturday evening was started by prisoners in a workshop after a fight, all of whom from a section of the prison for inmates jailed for robbery-related crimes. Locals have disputed that version of events and accused the prison authourities themselves of setting the fire to kill inmates, then blaming it on whom they like.
As protests continued across Iran over the weekend an official inquiry by parliament published on Sunday said Amini had probably died after collapsing inside the police station due to a pre-existing neurological condition. It said there was no evidence of physical blows to her body or brain by the security forces. The inquiry did say the morality police needed to be equipped with body cameras, and the law on the wearing of the hijab clarified.
It also called for the law on the hijab to be clarified because the penal code is too vague. The Amini family refused to cooperate with the inquiry because it has not been allowed to appoint any doctors.
The minister of education, Yousef Nouri, was also denied that a student, Asra Panahi, had been killed by security forces in the city of Ardabil after some students refused to sing a version of the national anthem. The authorities said she had poisoned herself. The death of a second student Nima Shafiqdoos was also attributed to poisoning by a dog bite.
The Coordinating Council of Trade Union Organisations of Iranian Educators issued a statement describing Nouri as incompetent and repressive: “A minister who sends his innocent students to the so-called reform and education centres not only has no understanding of education but should be seen as an interrogator.”
Iran’s authorities, almost right across the board, are untrustworthy crooks. The titles they hold are predominantly influenced by vanity and an excessive quest for power, which they quite readily abuse most of the time.
Iran has pathetically accused countries who have expressed support for the protests of meddling in their internal affairs, including President Ebrahim Raisi, who blamed his U.S. counterpart for inciting “chaos, terror, and destruction” in Iran.
Ignorance
The ignorance underlying his baseless and arrogant claim is shocking, given the evidence of human right breaches in his country which should cause him shame.
One traffic police officer was shot on Monday in Saravan in southeastern Iran by alleged “terrorists” armed with AK-47 assault rifles, according to Iranian police.
The sounds of gunfire were frequently heard in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, according to audio files that human rights group Hengaw received.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the European Union are among those to have criticised Tehran’s crackdown on protester.
EU ministers on Monday were on track towards the imposition of travel bans of some 15 Iranians involved, including freezi8ng their assets.
“We will launch … a sanctions package today that will hold accountable those who are responsible for the brutal crimes against women, youths and men,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Luxembourg.
“Amongst those listed is the so-called morality police – morality police being a misnomer, actually, if you see what crimes are committed there,” she said.
The protests, which started at Amini’s funeral in her Kurdish hometown of Saqez, spread rapidly to cities and provinces across Iran, a large country of more than 80 million people.
Demonstrations resumed early Monday in the central city of Yazd and several other cities, including Piranshahr in the northwest and Tehran.
The widely followed activist Tasvir1500 Twitter account shared a video depicting people setting tires on fire in the streets and calling for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s religious leaders have said the unrest is part of a breakaway uprising by the Kurdish minority, threatening the nation’s unity rather than its clerical rule.
Iran has deployed the Basij militia, voluntary military troops which have been at the forefront of repressing popular unrest, but they have failed to contain the protests.
The elite Revolutionary Guards, who have not taken part in the crackdown, began military exercises on Monday.
Rights groups said at least 240 protesters had been killed, including 32 minors. Over 8,000 people had been arrested in 111 cities and towns, Iranian activist news agency HRANA said on Saturday. The authorities have not published a death toll.
Iran, which has blamed the violence on enemies at home and abroad, denies security forces have killed protesters. Much of its media controlled by the rogue authorities cannot be trusted in times like these.