Pro-Regime Iranian Football Fans ‘Attacked’ Protest Supporters In Qatar

Reports from Doha say pro-regime Iranian fans attacked anti-government supporters inside and outside the stadium where Iran and the United States faced off in a World Cup match charged with emotion.

Some fans wearing T-shirts with “Women, Life, Freedom” written on them as a message for support for the ongoing demonstrations at home were allegedly beaten up at the Al Thumama Stadium by supporters of the country’s clerical regime after the U.S. 1-0 victory.

Rasmus Tantholdt, a reporter for Danish network TV2, said he was detained by police after filming the violence.

“So now I’m detained by Qatari Police for filming Iranians who were attacked by pro-government Iranians”, he tweeted overnight.

He later wrote that he was released after being asked to “delete my pictures which I refused”.

One of the videos shared by Tantholdt on social media showed two people in T-shirts supporting the protest movement in Iran, who alleged were attacked and left with injuries.

The pair can be heard demanding safe passage outside the venue.

“They attacked us!” one person in the video said.

The Associated Press reported that some Iranians at the stadium complained that government supporters sought to intimidate them by shoving camera phones in their faces.

Before the match, two Iranians who were wearing T-shirts with the slogan of protests were repeatedly harassed while talking to an AP journalist. One of them received a slap to the face by an Iranian man following her, the news agency said, adding that the man was not detained by security guards.

Iran has been engulfed in protests demanding more freedom and women’s rights for more than two months. More than 440 people have been killed in a state crackdown on the demonstrations, including dozens of children. Thousands of people have also been arrested. At least six people have so far been sentenced to death over the protests.