Iran’s social media users report continued arrests, including the arrest of minors, in Iran’s Khuzestan province amid an Internet blackout in the region. The blackout has seriously hampered the flow of information and videos of protests and arrests from the region in the past few days.
Karim Hosseini, a principlist member of parliament from Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) Thursday said he and others were working for the release of those arrested in recent protests who had not broken the law.
“There is no precise information on the number of [minor] detainees, but we are working for people from all age groups to be released if they [participated in the protests peacefully and] haven’t committed crimes,” he said, responding to a question about the arrest of minors and the setting of onerous bail terms.
In a statement issued in Beirut Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said human rights groups had verified the identities of nine people who had been shot dead or had died of injuries including a 17-year-old boy, during protests in Khuzestan and Lorestan provinces. HRW urged Iranian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release peaceful protesters, provide information about deaths and allow an independent international investigation into security agencies’ use of lethal force.”
Human Rights Watch cited reports from Amnesty International and the Amsterdam-based Radio Zamaneh naming three others said to have been killed. Authorities in Iran have confirmed the deaths of five, including a police officer.
Referring to a July 21 statement by Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and a July 25 report by the judiciary’s news agency, Mizan News, that promised the release of peaceful protesters, HRW said it had previously documented cases of Iran’s judiciary using vaguely defined ‘national security’ charges to prosecute peaceful dissent and subjected detainees to mistreatment, torture, and unfair trials.
Source: Iran International
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