Ex-IRGC Officer Releases More Evidence About Mahsa Amini’s Murder

The figure was sourced by Iran International to the lawyer of Efaheh Mohammadi, who said his client had been arrested after covering for the Ham-Mihan newspaper the funeral of Mahsa Amini, who died 16 September after being detained by morality police.

Mohammadi was reported in December 2021 by the Mujahideen-e Khalq, the Albania-based opposition group, to be banned from journalism for a year after Revolutionary Guards’ (IRGC) Intelligence complained over her reporting of “women’s issues” and the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran January 2020 during tensions with the United States.

The International Federation of Journalists, the Brussels-based association, claimed Monday 17 journalists had been arrested including two from the reformist newspaper Shargh and three from Mukrian, a Kurdish news agency, including editor Masoud Kurdpur.

Novelist J.K. Rowling, widely known for her Harry Potter books, tweeted Wednesday on the arrest of Niloufar Hamedi, arguing the Iran should be “held accountable for its human rights violations.” Rowling referred to a London Times article published Tuesday with a Dubai dateline that said Hamedi was held in solitary confinement after “breaking the news that Amini, 22, was in hospital following her arrest,” and publishing “a photo of her parents hugging each other in the hospital corridor, which spread rapidly online.”

Social media: ‘venue for the enemies’

Lotfollah Siakhali, a principlist member of parliament who is a proponent of internet restrictions, told reporters Wednesday that social media was “the biggest venue for the enemies to further their conspiracies” and therefore “restrictions [on Internet access] will continue” as long as unrest went on.

The IRGC commander in Tehran said on Wednesday that 185 members of the Basij militia, which has both full-time and part-time members and is IRGC-affiliated, had been injured during clashes, some critically. Basij militia is widely used in attacking protesters.

But Elon Musk’s headline-grabbing offer September 23 to extend the Starlink satellite Internet link to Iran has floundered. Musk’s intervention was followed by a US announcement lifting the threat of sanctions against anyone providing internet services or equipment to Iran. Musk reportedly told Washington-based Carnegie Endowment fellow Karim Sadjadpour Sunday: “Starlink is now activated in Iran. It requires the use of terminals in-country, which I suspect the government will not support, but if anyone can get terminals into Iran, they will work.”

‘Watch out for Gollum’

Middle East Eye reminded readers Tuesday that Musk once tweeted that “Iran’s nuclear weapons facility is apparently called ‘Frodo’. Watch out for Gollum!”?

Iranian leaders and officials resorted to their playbook of accusing the US and foreign-based media operations of fomenting violence, largely though the conduit of social media. In a televised interview on the official IRIB television Wednesday President Ebrahim Raisi criticized “fabricated claims on killing people” circulated by “the enemy.”

The Iranian government rarely issues permits for protests, except to its own supporters who do not need any formal permission. Six reformist parties, that do not oppose the Islamic Republic, submitted a request days ago and have not received any response.

Heath minister Bahram Einollahi said last week that 72 ambulances had been destroyed. Activists based abroad, cited in the UK Observer newspaper, claimed this happened because ambulances were used to move police forces.

"In response to the interventionist statement of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the participation of three French officials in protests in Paris and the ridiculous action of Charlie Hebdo magazine, the chargé d'affaires of the French Embassy in Tehran was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," state-run media reported on Thursday.

The head of the Second Bureau of West Europe at Iran’s Foreign Ministry told the French diplomat that Iran strongly condemns the intervention of the French Foreign Ministry and some French officials in Iran’s domestic affairs.

He also blamed the French officials of playing “a dual role”, by hosting groups that have been directly involved in unrest across Iran over the past years on the one hand, and by condemning the Iranian police for clashing with the same “rioters” on the other hand.

On September 26, France reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the Iranian security apparatus’ violent repression of the protests that have followed the shocking death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish girl who died due to several blows on her head in the hands of hijab police.

“France condemns all forms of violence, the arbitrary arrest and detention of protestors, as well as the gross violations of women’s rights and the freedom of expression via the blocking of news sites and social media. France also condemns the arbitrary arrest of journalists in the course of their work,” read a statement.

Spain summoned the Iranian ambassador Wednesday to convey Madrid’s “absolute condemnation” of the Islamic Republic's violence against peaceful protestors.

Democratic Senator from New Jersey Bob Menendez, who is the chairman Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told our correspondent that the United States should get ready for the fall of the regime in Iran, noting that the last time Iranians revolted against the government, the US did not have any plans. 

“I hope we'd be ready, and we'd have our contingencies and engagement, because we lost in the Green Revolution, we should be able to be ready for it now,” he said. 

Utah’s Republican Senator Mitt Romney also voiced his support for the popular uprising of the Iranians -- triggered by the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in the hands of hijab police – saying that currently it is not a good idea to be negotiating with Iran on a nuclear deal. “Iran is a bad actor and providing more resources to them and relieving sanctions would be a big mistake.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Alabama’s Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville warned against further nuclear negotiations with Iran while the country is in turmoil. “We don't need to get back to that dialog with Iran. They're obviously having problems over there right now. They need to work out their own problems.” 

Calling the Islamic Republic’s authorities “dictators,” he said he is not surprised that “the Iranian regime is clamping down on Iranian protesters.”

Republican Senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis described the Biden administration's plan to go back to negotiating table with Iran as “ill-advised,” underlining that the Islamic Republic is a “state sponsor of terror” that every year “invests hundreds of millions of dollars” to destabilize the Middle East. 

He added that it is beyond his comprehension that the Biden administration “thinks it'd be wise to do anything that would bolster that leadership versus stand with the Iranian people who want change.”

Pennsylvania's Senator Pat Toomey, also a Republican, called on the Biden administration to voice very strong, clear support for the protesters, highlighting that they are “only protesting for basic human rights, and they deserve those rights.”

He told our Congressional reporter Arash Alaei that “I don't think we can get a workable nuclear deal with this regime.”

Toomey said he does not have the expertise to make a prediction about the collapse of the regime, adding that “Sadly we know authoritarian regimes are able to retain power for a long period of time even when they're not popular.”

Republican Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota also urged the administration against negotiating with Iran right now, emphasizing that the Islamic Republic is “a terrorist state.” 

He touched upon the suffering of Iranians under the regime, saying, “Once again they're using some of those same tactics against their own people.”

Stressing that the “terrorist” regime in power in Iran is different from the Iranians who are good people themselves, he said that “we're having a difficult time in trying to find common ground with them (the regime). And that hurts our ability to have a good relationship with the people of Iran.”

Chris Van Hollen, Maryland's Democratic senator, also denounced the Islamic Republic's “vicious crackdown” on protesters as a “gross violation of women's rights and human rights,” expressing satisfaction that Washington slapped sanctions on hijab police and some security officials involved in the crackdown on peaceful protesters.

The Treasury Department said last week that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) isdesignating Iran’s Morality Police “for abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors.”

However, he said repression is already brutal in Iran without a nuclear deal, “So the idea that entering an agreement would cause the Iranian regime to be more brutal in its crackdown doesn't make sense to me.” “A nuclear armed Iran is worse for the US and our allies than a non-nuclear Iran,” he said, implying support for revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 

The Secretary General in a tweet demanded “a prompt, impartial and effective investigation by an independent competent authority,” as protests raged in Iran for nearly two weeks after Mahsa Amini died in hospital on September 16. Guterres added, “Human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association should be respected.”

It is not clear how many protesters have been killed Iran by security forces, but according to preliminary estimates the number is approaching at least one hundred.

The government has shut down the internet and deployed thousands of armed security forces in the streets of the Capital Tehran on Wednesday.

In a bilateral meeting in New York last week, Guterres had urged Iran’s hard-liner president Ebrahim Raisi that human rights, including freedom of expression and assembly were important, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the media.

"We are increasingly concerned about reports of rising fatalities, including women and children, related to the protests," Dujarric said in a statement.

The spokesman said last week that Guterres "calls on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force and appeals to all to exercise utmost restraint to avoid further escalation". He had also called for an impartial and effective investigation of Mahsa Amini’s death.

Although the Iranian government had hastened efforts to limit access to the Internet in August, it was after the start of nationwide protests following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman from Iran's Kurdistan Province, on September 16 that the government imposed an Internet blackout for at least 16 hours a day.

A minimal intranet has been in place to facilitate some banking operations and access to online taxi services. Many Iranians have been complaining on social media that they have been trying several VPNs (virtual private networks) to circumvent the strict censorship and get online to read the news or post videos of the protests.

Lotfollah Siahkali, a hard-line lawmaker, has told the press on Wednesday, that “social media are the biggest venue for the enemies to further their conspiracies, thus, restrictions will continue as long as the protests continue."

Siahkali made the comment about continued restrictions while acknowledging that the Internet disruption causes a huge financial loss for the country on a daily basis. "We should restrict Internet access in the interest of security," he said. He further charged that "protesters are not part of the nation!"

Iran first introduced Internet restriction two decades ago, but the advent of social media created a whole new challenge for censorship.

The Iranian government had started to restrict Internet access gradually since President Ebrahim Raisi took office in 2021. The measure was initiated during the previous government but was continued with renewed rigor and momentum.

The international community, including the US government have criticized violation of human rights including restricting Internet access and vowed to help Iranians to have better access to the Internet. However, according to Donya-ye Eqtesad daily, most VPNs available in the market have been hacked and made useless by Iranian government's agents.

The daily further added that it is highly unlikely that the restrictions imposed on applications such as Instagram and WhatsApp would be lifted. The report by Donya-ye Eqtesad confirmed that Iranians are experiencing serious problems in accessing platforms such as Telegram, Twitter and YouTube even when they use VPNs.

The daily wrote that despite the restrictions, Instagram and WhatsApp were the most popular vehicles of sending videos and reports from Iran. But gradually, during the past 12 days when the protests have been raging on with full force, the government extended its censorship to other applications including LinkedIn, Skype, and Soundcloud. Meanwhile Google Play and Apple App Store have also been filtered to bar Iranians from downloading other applications that still have not been banned.

Iran's Communication Minister Isa Zarepour told Mehr News Agency on Wednesday, "We imposed restrictions on some of the social media platforms that had become vehicles for carrying the protesters messages." He stressed that restrictions would continue as long as the protests go on. However, most observers say the restrictions will remain there for good.

Responding to the concerns about the harm restrictive measures can do to hundreds of thousands of small business particularly on Instagram and Telegram, the official suggested that Iranian businesses should not use foreign applications for businesses. He added that the ministry is trying to develop Iranian applications to be used by the businesses. This is a promise Iranian officials have been making since 2009 when social media filtering first started by the Iranian government. However, a few applications the government has introduced have failed to become popular because the people do not trust them in terms of privacy.