Protesters Across Iran Arrested on Amini Anniversary

Iranian security forces have arrested dozens of protesters overnight following the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in custody. 

Human rights sources report arrests of protesters across various cities in Iran, including Tehran, Karaj, Qarchak, Isfahan, Tabriz, Sanandaj, Saqqez, Diwandareh, Baneh, Marivan, Dehdasht, Yasouj and other urban centres. 

The identities of many of those taken into custody remain undisclosed.

Among those detained is Shida Saberi, a civil activist, actress and women’s rights advocate hailing from western Yasuj. 

She was arrested following the protests that erupted yesterday.

Saberi, who was also apprehended last year during nationwide protests by intelligence officers of the Yasuj Corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), released a video the day before participating in the street demonstrations, recounting her previous arrest.

On the anniversary of Amini’s death yesterday Saberi addressed her fellow citizens of Yasuj in a video message. She later went out to the streets without a headscarf and was arrested. 

Government officials and state news agencies have confirmed mass arrests of protesters in different cities. 

The charges against those arrested have been characterized as “vandalism” and “riot”.

The arrests occurred on the anniversary of the start of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. The precise number of people arrested in Iran in the past year has not been disclosed by official sources or judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic.

Images captured outside police stations show numerous families of detainees anxiously awaiting updates on their relatives’ status.

In Varamin, near Tehran, the prosecutor of Qarchak prison announced the arrest of a protester without revealing their name or identity, alleging that the person had “intentions to carry out harmful and destructive actions in Tehran province.”

Officials in Alborz province announced the arrest of a “dual citizen” in Karaj, the provincial capital, not naming them but accusing them of “attempting to organize riots and vandalism” in Karaj.

The Intelligence Organization of the Isfahan Police Command revealed the arrest of 10 people in Isfahan, saying that one of them faced charges of “protest leadership”.

Ali Mohammadi, the police commander of East Azerbaijan province, also disclosed the arrest of an individual in Tabriz on Saturday evening, alleging that “the detained person intended to carry out explosions and acts of violence in one of the city’s main squares using gas canisters.”

Reportedly 137 protesters were arrested in West Azerbaijan province yesterday. 

In Kurdistan province Amanullah Ghastasbi, the commander of the IRGC unit for the province, announced the arrest of 14 people in the cities of Sanandaj, Diwandareh, Baneh and Marivan in the past 24 hours.