Iran Arrests Five Jewish Citizens Amid Protests: Exclusive

Hours after a young Iranian, Mohsen Shekari, was hanged without a real trial, Pina Picierno reacted to his death in a tweet saying, “It is the first insane death sentence carried out on a protester in Iran.”

The Italian politician threw her weight behind the Iranian demonstrators stating that “you will find us on the side of freedom, on the side of the protesters. Always.”

Meanwhile, the Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden urged the international community to be the voice of Iranians.

Margot Wallström said in a tweet that “Mohsen Shekari was executed today in Iran by the Islamist regime. He was 23 years old.”

She went on to say that Sweden and the EU must take action quickly to save others. “The International community needs to speak out loud and clear against this,” reads her tweet.

Social media users are also raising concerns about the fate of other Iranian detainees saying thousands of other arrested protesters may have the same fate.

Mohsen Shekari, who was convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and closing off a street in the capital Tehran, was hanged as the first detained protester to receive the death penalty on Thursday.

Referring to the Time magazine’s selection of Iranian Women as the heroes of the 2022, Harris said in a tweet, “I am inspired by the women of Iran and their bravery.”

She added that Washington will continue to work with the international community “to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its brutal crackdown on the Iranian people.”

The Time magazine on Wednesday crowned the women of Iran as heroes of the year 2022 for their role in leading popular protests against the Islamic Republic.

The US magazine described Iranian women as “educated, secular, liberal” who took to the streets after the death of the young Kurdish Mahsa Amini to say, “they have the freedom to say and wear anything.”

In the protests fueled by the death in custody of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, women have been on the forefront emphasizing their personal freedoms including the right to decide what to wear. Unlike most protests in the past few years that were triggered by economic hardship, this round of demonstrations is propelled more by a yearning for social freedoms.

Women, who were oppressed for 43 years following the Islamic Revolution, have become a symbol of human rights; longing for a normal life and vitality, which the Iranian people were robbed of for decades.

Dozens of detained protesters face charges or have been convicted of charges that carry the death penalty according to Iran’s Islamic laws.

Nationwide protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 represent one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.

The Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, identified the person who was executed as Mohsen Shekari but gave no more details. The specific actions Tasnim mentioned as reasons for Shekari’s death sentence cannot be independently verified.

So far, around 500 civilians have been killed by security forces and at least 18,000 arrested. While many have been since released, around 1,500 face criminal charges.

On Monday, the Revolutionary Guards praised the hardliner Judiciary for its tough stand and encouraged it to issue judgements swiftly and decisively for defendants accused of "corruption on earth”, or Moharebeh, an Islamic-Arabic term meaning ‘fighting against God.” Both these concepts are legally vague term, leaving clerical judges to convict people to death without a real trial, often with no defense lawyers and behind closed doors. The defendants have no way of challenging state evidence or introduce witnesses.

Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi announced on Tuesday that five people indicted in the killing of a Basij militia member, Rouhollah Ajamian, were sentenced to death in a verdict which they can appeal.

An secret Revolutionary Guard audio recording released by a hactivist group last week revealed that up to 80 detainees face the death sentence.

Amnesty International has said the Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what it called "sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran".

“The Iranian authorities must immediately quash all death sentences, refrain from seeking the imposition of the death penalty and drop all charges against those arrested in connection with their peaceful participation in protests," it said.

The Islamic Republic, which never allows dissident protests has fully dismissed the legitimacy of the current popular movement. Instead, its officials have accused the United States and its allies for fomenting the unrest. Recently, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran said that the US has spent $55 trillion dollars against the Islamic Republic, mindless of the fact that the amount is twice the US annual GDP.

The country witnessed widespread business closures on December 5 and 6, followed by what activists said would be large protests on Wednesday. Initial reports from Tehran say that people have begun silent marches from the main Revolution Square to the city’s Azadi monument, as planned by the anonymous organizers.

Security forces are swarming in Tehran streets, although people in an apparent attempt to avoid confrontation are walking in silence towards the destination of the rally at Azadi plaza.

Students also held protests in several universities around the country on Wednesday, which known as Student Day in Iran. Reports say both paramilitary Basij forces and regular security units tried to surround and intimidate the students.

The Wednesday protest action will be a test of the government’s claim that the unrest has ended and plans “by foreign enemies” defeated. Regime hardliners are united in their rhetoric that the protests are nothing more than a plot by foreign intelligence services, although most gatherings were led by teenagers and women.

The government reportedly restricted access to the Internet on Wednesday and made it hard for people to connect to social media platforms and send videos of the protests. We did not receive information from many cities and expect to get more on December 8.

Below we will provided live coverage of events in Iran as we receive information and images. Our coverage lasted 7 hours and ended at 2:00 local time on December 8.

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Just in at midnight Tehran time. A young man Hooman Abdollahi was shot during protests in the Kurdish town of Sanandaj this evening.

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People chanting in Tehran for the clerics "to get lost".

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Protesters blocked a road in the Kurdish populated town of Bukan, a stronghold of protests.

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In the religious city of Mashhad, the second largest urban area in Iran, people chanting "Death to the dictator".

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Protest in Rudsar, a city in northern Iran.

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At 11:20 pm, people are still moving towards Tehran's Azadi monument, with cars honking.

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A terrifying scene as a police anti-protest armored vehicle tries to run over a civilian in a town not far from Tehran.

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Protesters fleeing gunfire near Tehran's Azadi monument Wednesday night.

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Wednesday night in Qazvin, northwest of Tehran. Protesters chanting "Freedom freedom".

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Social media reports say large crowds on foot and in cars are moving toward the Azadi monument in Tehran. Security forces are firing tear gas and also shoot at pedestrians and cars with 'birdshots' from shotguns.

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Protest in the center of the central city of Esfahan at 10:00 pm local time.

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Residents protested in the Ekbatan residential district of Tehran. One of the videos below show security forces arresting protesters and shooting paintballs at them.

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People in Tehran marching toward Azadi plaza. Latest reports say the authorities have turned of the decorative lighting of the Azadi monument where protesters are gathering. Streets are full of security forces and people in some neighborhoods have started separate protests to keep them bogged down.

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The Azadi monument can be seen in this short video and gunfire can be heard.

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People protesting in a Tehran district that is not named in this tweet.

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Protesters chanting, "Death to the dictator" in Azadi Avenue in Tehran as security forces try to disrupt by riding their motorcycles around the crowd.

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Protester have gathered in Kerman, a conservative city in central Iran.

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People set fire to a statue in Dareh Shahrt, Ilam Province, western Iran, as gunfire is heard.

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Protesters marched in Najafabad near Esfahan Wednesday evening, chanting against economic hardships and calling for struggle until the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. There are also reports of protests in the center of Esfahan and sounds of gunfire.

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Protesters lit fires in the streets of Sanandaj in western Iran, chanting "Death to the dictator."

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Latest reports say people in Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan Province have congregated at two main locations and are calling for unity.

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Protesters in Ardakan, a town in Yazd Province, central Iran.

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Police has deployed women guards at Baharestan square in Tehran amid reports of lack of manpower to confront widespread protest rallies.

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Reports from the northwestern city of Tabriz say people have begun protest marches, although to Internet access denial by government there are no images available yet.

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People chanting "Death to the dictator in a metro station in the capital Tehran Wednesday afternoon.

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All shops are on strike in the Sunni majority city, Zahedan.

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Complete strike by retail businesses in Qazvin, northwest of Tehran on Wednesday, the third day of nationwide strikes by small businesses.

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Total strike by retail businesses in Shiraz, Fars Province on Wednesday.

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Security forces attacked students at Mashhad's Ferdowsi University and arrested at least one person. Students are chanting, "If one of us is killed, there a thousand other behind us."

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Students marching and chanting at Allameh Tabatabei University on Wednesday.

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People marching in silence in Qorva, a small provincial town.

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Western diplomatic sources told Iran International that the Islamic Republic has started negotiations with its Venezuelan allies to ensure they'd offer asylum to regime officials and their families should the situation worsen, and the possibility of a regime change increases. 

According to these sources, a delegation of four high-ranking regime officials visited Venezuela in mid-October for negotiations to ensure that the Caracas government would grant asylum to high-ranking officials and their families in case "the unfortunate incident" happens. 

In early-November, an unnamed source at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport told Kayhan-London that three flights a day were taking off with "a considerable amount of cargo" bound for Venezuela, adding that "these people get their suitcases out in hours, with fewer passengers and flights. This began about two weeks ago, and we see these movements about two or three times a day."

"Initially, my colleagues and I thought these were embassy employees, though we noticed their car number plates didn't belong to any embassy. We don't know what they are transferring, and whether they are leaving the country with all the luggage or not. Because they won't let us examine closely. We just know that in past weeks, every day there are three to four flights to Venezuela," the source said. 

According to another report by the website of UK’s Daily Express in October, top officials of the Islamic Republic were reportedly attempting to secure British passports for their families to exit the country amid the uprising against the regime following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was killed in police custody in September.

Citing an unnamed Iranian source, the Daily Express also claimed that officials have been chartering up to "five flights a day" for their families, adding that some sections of “Tehran’s main airport” have been taken over as a fast-track area for their own family and friends to escape the country.

The source said things are moving fast at the airport, noting that “It started more than two weeks ago. The regime changed all security details at the airport. They were moving civilians (friends and family) from the back entrance of the airport directly to the airplanes for international flights.”

Social media users are reporting regular money transfers abroad by high-ranking officials of the regime. According to one account, former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s wife is said to have transferred €4 million to an ABC Bank account in Shanghai through some agencies in Dubai.

There are also unconfirmed reports that officials are transferring their assets to friendly countries and there are official reports that many high-priced and luxurious homes in the capital Tehran are being sold below market value, strengthening speculations that some of the rich are in a hurry to leave the country. A recent report by the government’s official news agency, IRNA, confirmed the sale of many apartments cheaper than their estimated prices, describing it as the result of lower purchasing power due to the economic crisis.