Biden Admin Hesitant To Characterize Iran Protests

Residents of Mahabad took to the streets after participating in the funeral ceremony of 35-year-old Esmail Moloudi who was killed during nationwide protests the night before after security forces opened fire at the chanting crowd to disperse them.

Participant in Moloudi’s funeral chanted anti-government slogans such as “Death to the Dictator” and “A martyr does not die”.

Videos posted on social media show a huge crowd of protesters on the street and protesters outside the governorate building part of which was burning. Videos also show security forces shooting at protesters and some injured protesters.

Moloudi, father of one, was shot dead Wednesday night duringprotests in Mahabad.

Protests were held in over thirty cities and towns across the country on Wednesday to honor Mahsa Amini whose death in custody sparked the current protests on the traditionally significant 40th day of her death.

According to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights another 21-year-old man named Mohammad Shariati was also killed in Sanandaj by security forces’ direct fire Wednesday evening.

Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based rights organization, said Tuesday that at least 234 people, including 29 children have been killed in the ongoing nationwide protests in Iran.

The protests which erupted in Mahsa Amini’s hometown of Saqqez and the capital Tehran after her death in hospital soon spread to many other towns and cities across the country. Protests in Iran have garnered massive support from expatriate communities around the world as well as foreign governments and officials.

Expressing concerns about the clerical regime's ongoing violent crackdown on antigovernment protests, EU’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs Peter Stano told journalists Thursday that contrary to Tehran’s sanctions, “when you take the EU sanctions (on Iran), they are adopted on clear legal grounds, based on the evidence of human rights violations in Iran." 

In reaction to the EU’s October 17 sanctions targeting Iranian individuals and entities over their role in the brutal suppression of peaceful protests,Tehran announced Wednesday sanctions against eight institutions and 12 individuals based in the EU.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry claimed that the Islamic Republic’s sanctions were imposed due to “deliberate actions in support of terrorism and terrorist groups, encouraging and inciting terrorism, violence, and hatred, which has caused riots, violence, terrorist acts, and human rights violations against the people of Iran.”

Iranian authorities, including the Supreme leader and the president, accuse Western countries and Israel of being behind the current wave of antigovernment protests, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

The new list of sanctions includes the Persian-language services of Germany’s Deutsche Welle and France’s RFI, extending Iran’s animosity against foreign-based channels that it says are promoting an uprising such as BBC Persian and Iran International. Two directors of the German newspaper Bild were also blacklisted.

In a statement on Wednesday, Javaid Rehman said current investigations and domestic accountability channels had failed to meet the minimum standards of transparency, objectivity and impartiality, urgingan independent mechanism into all human rights violations leading up to and since the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, who died in hospital after being arrested by the morality police. 

He said that the Islamic Republic is monitoring, harassing, and sometimes beating women on a daily basis in the pretext of its mandatory dress code -- implemented through the morality police.“This is meant to instill an atmosphere of fear,” he noted.

“Chronic impunity and lack of redress for previous violations have culminated in today’s events as we see protests throughout the country calling for justice and accountability for Amini’s death but also demanding respect for fundamental socio-economic and political rights and particularly freedom of expression,” he added.

Also on Wednesday, a group of UN human rights experts condemned the killings and the crackdown by security forces in Iran on protesters, including alleged arbitrary arrests and detentions, gender-based and sexual violence, excessive use of force, torture, and enforced disappearances.

They also urged that the reports be thoroughly and independently investigated and those responsible held to account, adding, “An alarming number of protesters have already been detained and killed, many of whom are children, women and older persons. The Government must instruct police to immediately cease any use of excessive and lethal force and exercise restraint.”

In a video message released on social media, the deceased journalist, Reza Haqiqatnejad’s elderly mother, Beigomjan Raisi, who said she had not seen her son for more than six years, pleaded with authorities to let her see and bury his son. Haqighatnejad, 45, passed away at Berlin ten days ago after six months of battling with cancer.

“I had not seen him for six years, and I wasn’t aware of his illness in the past six months. They finally let me bring his body to the country, but now the Revolutionary Guards [IRGC] or police have abducted his body from the airport,” she said.

Haqiqatnejad who worked for Radio Farda, a US-sponsored Persian news network based in Prague, died on October 17 and his body was repatriated to Iran for burial on October 25.

IRGC forces reportedly took the body to an unknown location after his coffin arrived at Shiraz airport. The family had made arrangements for burial at a cemetery in Shiraz and acquired all the relevant permits but according to Haqiqatnejad’s relatives and friends, security forces have been pressuring the family of the deceased journalist to agree to his burial in a cemetery outside the city.

Haqiqatnejad, a seasoned journalist had to leave Iran following escalation of pressure on journalists during the 2009 protests against disputed presidential elections. He focused on corruption in Iran during his three years at Radio Farda and produced many reports on financial corruption and the IRGC as well as the clampdown on journalists and protesters in the current wave of protests ignited by the death in custody of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Haqiqatnejad’s last tweet was about the confrontation of schoolgirls in the city of Karaj with a government official who was visiting their school, booing the official out of their school.

The abduction of Haqiqatnejad’s body has drawn numerous reactions by social media users, who say the Islamic Republic’s authorities are even afraid of his dead body.

Popular Iranian former football (soccer) player Ali Karimi -- who is currently abroad and has been charged in absentia for supporting the ongoing antigovernment protests – addressed the Iranian government's spokesman, saying that the Islamic Republic are telling him it is safe to return to Iran, yet they are refusing even to handover Haqiqatnejad’s dead body to his family.

Describing him as a "brilliant journalist," RFE/RL President and CEO Jamie Fly said the Iranian regime’s manipulation of Haqiqatnejad’s family was "disgraceful and disgusting" and that the family deserves to be allowed to bury him without regime harassment. He was "passionate about freedom and justice for his fellow Iranians, and a champion of the voiceless until the end," Fly added.

A twitter user shared one of Haqiqatnejad’s tweet about Iran’s Supreme Leader, calling on people to repost it when Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei passes away. In the post, Haqiqatnejad had highlighted the track record of Khamenei’s decisions during the Covid-19 pandemic. This record, he had said, was enough to see how he led the country to a catastrophe.

Fars news agency – affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – reported that scores of pro-regime students gathered outside the embassy building “in protest to the British government's hostile actions against the security of the Iranian nation.”

The participants also chanted slogans against the United States and Saudi Arabia as well as the United Kingdom. They also carried banners against the London-based Persian news channels such as BBC Persian. In their banners, they also changed the main motto of the current wave of protests from “Women, Life, Liberty” to “Women, Life, Martyrdom.”

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Last week, Iran sanctioned several British individuals and entities over “activities that have led to unrest, violence, and terrorist acts against the Iranian nation.”

These included Tom Tugendhat, Minister of State for Security, Commodore Don Mackinnon, British naval commander in the Persian Gulf, and Steve McCabe, member of parliament ad Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, as well as media outlets and their owners including BBC Persian and Iran International.

On Wednesday, Iran announced a new set of sanctions against institutions and individuals in the European Union, alleging that they incite violence in the country.

A group of Canadian and British lawmakers and politicians have urged their respective governments to take measures to stop Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

On October 22, Iran's hardliner Judiciary said Persian-speaking TV channels based in London, including Iran International, must be designated as “terrorist groups”.