CNN
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As many as 14,000 folks have been arrested in Iran throughout protests there since September, based on a prime United Nations official.
“Over the previous six weeks, hundreds of males, girls and youngsters – by some accounts over 14,000 individuals – have been arrested, which incorporates human rights defenders, college students, attorneys, journalists and civil society activists,” stated Javaid Rehman, particular rapporteur on the State of affairs of Human Rights within the Islamic Republic of Iran on Wednesday.
The “unabated violent response of safety forces” within the nation has led to the reported deaths of no less than 277 folks, Rehman added in an tackle to the UN Safety Council, a determine backed by experiences from human rights teams.
CNN can not independently confirm the arrest determine or the demise toll – exact figures are inconceivable for anybody outdoors the Iranian authorities to substantiate – and completely different estimates have been given by opposition teams, worldwide rights organizations and native journalists.
Rehman additionally referenced Iran’s determination to carry public trials for 1,000 folks arrested in connection to the continuing protests, noting that a number of the prices carry the demise penalty.
Iranian state media – a mouthpiece for the federal government – has itself reported on the 1,000 or so folks indicted in Tehran province for his or her alleged involvement in nationwide protests.
The demonstrations had been first ignited by the demise of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl who died in mid-September after being detained by the nation’s morality police.
Since then, protests throughout Iran have coalesced round a spread of grievances with the regime.
More and more, activists and specialists are characterizing the protests as a nationwide rebellion and one of many largest challenges to the Iranian regime since its founding.
“This isn’t a protest for reform,” Roham Alvandi, an affiliate professor of Historical past on the London Faculty of Economics, informed CNN. “That is an rebellion demanding the tip of the Islamic Republic. And that’s one thing utterly completely different to what we’ve seen earlier than.”
