2022 Iranian Protests

[r16]

it is avoided practically on purpose , this thread . Nobody will ever believe that prospects for the total defeat of Russia seems bleak and Bidon throws a bone or two around to get his incredible military victory . That there are few takers should not come as a surprise but must take this as if Tel Aviv stops supporting Russia or whatever Netenyahu can win the next 10 elections after having Iran invaded by America . Being a dying empire is like bad . Or something .


or you can instead claim the guy is too old .

 

[El_Machinae]

It's interesting that North Korea is sabre-rattling too. There must be some deal where they're drawing away military attention from Ukraine.

You'd think they'd be making bank selling Russia stuff. India is just keeping its head down and selling, AFAICT

 

[r16]

considering South Korea , the North can provide no distraction short of actual shooting war . And it has been in the media that during Trump's time , plans were made about using up to 80 nuclear weapons against the North . It is the annual or whatever crisis time . Exercises in the South , North fires missiles . Or vice versa .

 

[Takhisis]

It's interesting that North Korea is sabre-rattling too. There must be some deal where they're drawing away military attention from Ukraine.

Well, the North Koreans have an inferiority complex so they need to get attention all the time.

 

[r16]

they are really proud of the way they are building stuff these days . Definitely a change from the days they starved and had nothing to show for it .

 

[aelf]

Well, the North Koreans have an inferiority complex so they need to get attention all the time.

Most Asian authoritarian states do.

MHA slams Richard Branson for 'peddling falsehoods' about Singapore, giving ‘lame excuses’ for not debating death penalty

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday (Nov 5) slammed British billionaire Richard Branson’s rejection of its offer of a live televised debate on Singapore's death penalty, saying that his "lame excuses" do not hold water, and it can only surmise that he realises that his...

www.todayonline.com

 

[Absolution]

You can use the 2009 protests as comparison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Iranian_presidential_election_protests

Those were also big but were eventually crushed. There would need for support from the Revolutionary Guard for a regime change.

Now way for a support by the Guards as long as this is an ideological protest.
The Guards are made of ideologically affiliated people who support the Islamic Revolution.

Economical protests would have been more likely to draw in some Guards soldiers.


But - bringing the regular military to the protesters' side is a more achieveable goal that can hopefully be enough.

 

[r16]

that is also why regular militaries are getting shunned all over the world . Because they tend to need brains to run . Which would cause "friction" as "competition is trimmed" . In contrast to well fed , well paid and somewhat m ronic regime supporters . The war in Ukraine is most hurtful in this respect . Showing you still need regulars , despite the couch warriors with drones and all that . The West is to make a choice soon ; they are not exactly going to be forgiven in Russia .

 

[Takhisis]

Most Asian authoritarian states do.

Authoritarians in general. Simply because they develop a sort of unipersonal Lombard reflex, given how the only voice they notice is their own.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Iran International: TV channel says Iran threatened UK-based journalists​

Two British-Iranian journalists for the UK-based Persian-language TV channel Iran International have been warned of a possible risk to their lives, a UK law enforcement source has confirmed.
Parent company Volant Media said the Metropolitan Police had notified the pair of a recent increase in "credible" threats from Iranian security forces.
It denounced the "escalation of a state-sponsored campaign to intimidate Iranian journalists working abroad".
Iranian authorities have not commented.

However, they announced sanctions against Iran International and BBC News Persian last month, accusing them of "incitement of riots" and "support of terrorism" over their coverage of the anti-government protests that have engulfed the country over the past two months.
The two UK-based channels are already banned from Iran, but a press freedom watchdog says they are among the main sources of news and information in a country where independent media and journalists are constantly persecuted.

Volant Media said in a statement that it was "shocked and deeply concerned" by the threats its journalists had received, which it attributed to Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful military force with close ties to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"The Metropolitan Police have now formally notified both journalists that these threats represent an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families. Other members of our staff have also been informed directly by the Metropolitan Police of separate threats."
It added: "These lethal threats to British citizens on British soil come after several weeks of warnings from the IRGC and Iranian government about the work of a free and uncensored [Persian]-language media working in London."
Volant Media warned that the IRGC "cannot be allowed to export their pernicious media crackdown to the UK" and called on the British government to "join us in condemning these horrific threats and continue to highlight the importance of media freedom".
In a statement to the BBC, the Metropolitan Police said: "We do not comment on matters of protective security in relation to any specific individuals."
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford reports that the UK law enforcement source would not discuss the suggestion in the Daily Telegraph that a "hostile Iranian surveillance team" was spotted outside the homes and offices of the journalists.

Last year, United Nations experts expressed their "grave concern over the continuation of reported harassment and intimidation of the BBC News Persian staff and their family members, which appears to be aimed at preventing them from continuing their journalistic activities".
They set out the pattern of harassment that BBC journalists have suffered over the past decade, including "the systematic attacks, including harassment, asset freezing, serious threats, and defamation campaigns implemented by the authorities against BBC News Persian journalists".
The UN experts also raised concern about the surveillance of BBC journalists and the harassment of their sources in Iran, the interrogation of journalists' family members, and the pressure placed on journalists "to leave their jobs" - all of which they said might have a "chilling effect" on journalism.
Iran's response to the UN experts accused the BBC journalists of aiming to "overthrow the Islamic Republic" - a claim the BBC insisted was false.
US prosecutors also announced last year that four Iranian intelligence officials had been charged with plotting to kidnap a New York-based journalist critical of Iran. The indictment did not name the target, but Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American author and activist, said it was her.
Iran's government said the allegations were "ridiculous and baseless".
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63554305

 

[Broken_Erika]

Iran protester: 'We could hear the beatings and screams in jail'​

Anti-government protests in Iran have entered an eighth week, despite a crackdown by security forces in which local human rights activists say at least 321 people have been killed and 14,800 others have been detained.
One female protester in her 20s, who spent a week in prison and was recently released on bail, told the BBC's Khosro Kalbasi Isfahani that she witnessed physical and psychological torture, and other ill-treatment.

"I have been released from jail, but I feel like I am still shackled.
I had heard stories about people being arrested and tortured, but it is different when you see such things first-hand.
I feel that I am going to explode with rage, since I can't do anything for those still stuck in jail. I just want to get this testimony out there.

There were girls as young as 15 among the people detained with us.
Two young women suffered from chronic illnesses, but our jailers refused to give them medicine. One of them panicked and fainted when she was handed a heavy prison sentence. But the security officers did not care. We asked them to call an ambulance, but a female officer said she would "be alright soon enough".
The same women was tortured while being interrogated. They smashed her hands so severely that almost all her fingernails were broken.
When another woman had a seizure, the guards just shrugged it off, saying that if she died it would mean "one piece of trash less on earth". She suffered from epilepsy, but the guards refused her access to medication.
A fourth woman had cancer. But the security officers refused her access to medical care. She had letters from respected doctors saying that she needed to visit medical centres for routine procedures, but they refused her medical care.
A 17-year-old girl said her main concern was that she would not be able to get good marks in her final school exams, because she could not study in prison. She told us that she hoped her mother had told her school principals that she was sick, so they would let her go back to school after getting released.

A young man in his 20s, who was arrested at the same time as us, was beaten so badly by security forces. They hit him on his head with batons. He feared that he would die there and then. He gave us his name and his parents' address so that we would be able to tell them about his last moments. I don't know where they took him.
They also brought young men into the cell next to ours and beat them. We could hear the sound of the beatings and their screams. We panicked when we heard those sounds.

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Another terrifying thing about being arrested during the protests was that no clear procedures were followed. You did not know what might happen to you, hour to hour. Everything depended on the whims of the officer handling your case. And they constantly lied to you. You were kept in state of limbo.
Many protesters also cannot afford the hefty bails that the judges are demanding, meaning that they are stuck in jail.
Since my release, I have felt that my hands are tied. They have installed so many surveillance cameras across my city that I feel that anywhere I go they are constantly watching me.
Many people have stopped taking their mobile phones to protests because that will expose them to additional risks if they get arrested.

Some protesters used to take old "dumbphones" [basic handsets without the internet or apps] with them. But security forces have become wary of that and now accuse them of being "riot leaders". In some cases, they have released people from detention centres and later raided their homes and seized all their electronic devices.
I hope that nobody else will be forced to suffer even a shred of what we saw and endured.
I was beaten at the time of my arrest. But your own personal pain becomes irrelevant when you see the pain of others.
I can say with confidence that almost no-one cried over their own injuries - it was only over the pain of others or out of fear for their families."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63559971

 

[aelf]

Religious fundamentalists are sick in the head.

 

[Takhisis]

It's amazing how Argentina's government manages to still try to cling to its tenuous alliance with Iran. And, hey, I have to live under it.

 

[Angst]

iran says they currently hold 14,000 protesters as prisoners. the parliament signed a letter, 227 out of 290, a letter asking to mark the imprisoned as mohareb, meaning god's enemies in their interpretation of shariah. they want the prisoners to be tried on what iran considers terrorism. if this is carried out, individual verdicts may vary, but my rebel-sired iranian friend sees the writing on the wall.

so. there's been numbers around the internet that's noted the government just voted to execute the prisoners. this is wrong, technically. it wasn't a vote (afaik), and it's not judgments of execution, but wishes for judgments that can put them on trial as terrorists.

but my friend believes the debunking of the news is splitting hairs (again, her whole family is iranian rebels). shortly put, the parliament wants to categorically make all protesters terrorists, and treat them as such. chances are, a lot of people are going to get executed if they're marked as mohareb.

concrete numbers of deaths will not be transparent. even in iran, the families don't know what's happening after the disappearances until a corpse shows up somewhere.

 

[Absolution]

iran says they currently hold 14,000 protesters as prisoners. the parliament signed a letter, 227 out of 290, a letter asking to mark the imprisoned as mohareb, meaning god's enemies in their interpretation of shariah. they want the prisoners to be tried on what iran considers terrorism. if this is carried out, individual verdicts may vary, but my rebel-sired iranian friend sees the writing on the wall.

so. there's been numbers around the internet that's noted the government just voted to execute the prisoners. this is wrong, technically. it wasn't a vote (afaik), and it's not judgments of execution, but wishes for judgments that can put them on trial as terrorists.

but my friend believes the debunking of the news is splitting hairs (again, her whole family is iranian rebels). shortly put, the parliament wants to categorically make all protesters terrorists, and treat them as such. chances are, a lot of people are going to get executed if they're marked as mohareb.

concrete numbers of deaths will not be transparent. even in iran, the families don't know what's happening after the disappearances until a corpse shows up somewhere.

I wish that everybody over the world would replace the word "terrorists" with the term "our enemies".
It will add much more honesty and reduce so many misunderstandings that the word "terrorists" creates.

 

[Takhisis]

I think you mean freedom fighters…

 

[Broken_Erika]

Iran protests: Tehran court sentences first person to death over unrest​

A court in Iran has issued the first death sentence to a person arrested for taking part in the protests that have engulfed the country, state media say.
A Revolutionary Court in Tehran found the defendant, who was not named, had set fire to a government facility and was guilty of "enmity against God".
Another court jailed five people for between five to 10 years on national security and public order charges.
A human rights group warned authorities might be planning "hasty executions".

At least 20 people are currently facing charges punishable by death, Norway-based Iran Human Rights said, citing official reports.
Its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, called on the international community to take urgent action and "strongly warn the Islamic Republic of the consequences of executing protesters".

Protests against Iran's clerical establishment erupted two months ago after the death in custody of a young woman detained by morality police for allegedly breaking the strict hijab rules.
They are reported to have spread to 140 cities and towns and evolved into the most significant challenge to the Islamic Republic in over a decade.
At least 326 protesters, including 43 children and 25 women, have been killed in a violent crackdown by security forces, according to Iran Human Rights.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which is also based outside the country, has put the death toll at 339 and said another 15,300 protesters have detained. It has also reported the deaths of 39 security personnel.
Iran's leaders have portrayed the protests as "riots" instigated by the country's foreign enemies.
Last week, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei declared that "key perpetrators" should be identified as soon as possible and handed sentences that would have a deterrent effect on others.

He warned that "rioters" could be charged with "moharebeh" (enmity against God), "efsad fil-arz" (corruption on Earth) and "baghy" (armed rebellion) - all of which can carry the death penalty in Iran's Sharia-based legal system.
Those possessing and using a weapon or firearm, disrupting national security, or killing someone could receive "qisas" (retaliation in kind), he said, apparently responding to a call for retributive justice from 272 of the 290 members of Iran's parliament.
More than 2,000 people have already been charged with participating in the "recent riots", according to judiciary figures.
On Sunday, local media cited judiciary officials as saying that 164 had been charged in the southern province of Hormozgan, another 276 in the central province of Markazi, and 316 in neighbouring Isfahan province.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63621330

 

[Remorseless1]

The Islamic Republic has always been able crush any and all opposition. After, the ayatollahs are anointed by God, right?

 

[Broken_Erika]

Iran hands out more death sentences to anti-government protesters​

Four people have been sentenced to death on the charge of "enmity against God" in connection with the recent anti-government protests in Iran.
Revolutionary Courts in Tehran said one of the unnamed "rioters" hit and killed a policeman with his car, the judiciary's Mizan news agency said.
The second possessed a knife and a gun, and the third blocked traffic and caused "terror", it alleged.
The fourth was convicted of a knife attack, Mizan reported late on Tuesday.

Human rights activists condemned the death sentences - which brought the total to five since Sunday - saying they were the results of unfair trials.
"Protesters don't have access to lawyers in the interrogation phase, they are subjected to physical and mental torture to give false confessions, and sentenced based on the confessions," the director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told AFP news agency.

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At least 348 protesters have been killed and 15,900 others arrested in a crackdown by security forces on what Iran's leaders have portrayed as foreign-backed "riots", according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which is also based outside the country.
At least 15 detainees are believed to be facing security-related charges that are punishable by death under Iran's Sharia-based legal system, including "enmity against God" and "corruption on Earth".
The women-led protests against clerical rule erupted after the death in custody three months ago of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly breaking the strict rules on hijabs.

The judiciary's announcements came after seven people were reportedly killed amid a fresh wave of unrest that began on Tuesday.
Activists called for three days of demonstrations and strikes to commemorate "Bloody November" - a reference to the deadly crackdown on the last major wave of protests that began on 15 November 2019, when many Iranians reacted angrily to a sudden increase in fuel prices.
Videos posted on social media on Tuesday showed crowds in Tehran and other major cities chanting slogans against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including "death to the dictator".

At a metro station in the capital, protesters set fire to a headscarf on a platform as a crowd shouted that Ayatollah Khamenei "will be toppled".
Another video from a metro station appeared to show officers beating people inside a train carriage, while in a third, people were seen running and falling over as security forces allegedly opened fire.

On Wednesday, Kurdish human rights group Hengaw reported that a male protester was shot and killed by security forces in the north-western city of Kamyaran, in Mahsa Amini's home province of Kurdistan.
He had been standing near the house of another man who was killed by direct fire from security forces on Tuesday, it said. Another two men were also killed in the nearby city of Sanandaj, it added.
Hengaw, which is based in Norway, also said that protesters seized control of the city of Bukan, in neighbouring West Azerbaijan province, on Tuesday night.
State media reported on Wednesday that "rioters" shot dead two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including a colonel, in Bukan and Kamyaran.

They also said that a cleric who was a member of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force, which is controlled by the IRGC, died after being hit by a Molotov cocktail in the southern city of Shiraz.
State media have so far reported the deaths of 38 security personnel since the protests began. HRANA has put the toll at 43.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63648629

 

[Broken_Erika]

Iranian protesters reportedly torch Ayatollah Khomeini's ancestral home​

State media denies the building, now a museum to the founder of the Islamic Republic, has been torched​

Video clips showing a fire at the ancestral home of the Islamic Republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Iran have appeared on social media, with activists saying it was torched by protesters.

Reuters verified the location of two video clips using the distinctive arches and buildings that match file images.

However, the semi-official Tasnim news agency denied Khomeini's house was set on fire, saying a small number of people had gathered outside the house.

The social media videos show dozens of people cheering as a flash of fire is sparked in a building.

Reuters could not independently verify the dates when the videos were filmed. Activist network 1500Tasvir said the incident occurred on Thursday evening in Khomeini's birth town of Khomein, south of the capital Tehran.

The house had been converted into a museum.

"The report is a lie," Tasnim said. "The doors of the house of the late founder of the great revolution are open to the public."

Khomeini returned to Iran from 15 years of exile in 1979, after longtime leader Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi departed the country in the face of growing opposition to his decade-long reign.

Khomeini died in 1989.

Conflicting accounts of deadly Izeh incident​

Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been under intense pressure from nationwide protests calling for an end to rule hardline clerical rule since the death in September of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran's morality police.

Separate videos posted by Tasvir purported to show marchers in several cities in Sistan-Baluchistan province, including in the capital Zahedan, where protesters chanted "Death to Khamenei," and Chabahar, where demonstrators removed and trampled the sign of an avenue named after Ayatollah Khomeini.

State media said authorities held a funeral ceremony for seven people killed in the southwestern city of Izeh in what it described as a terrorist act.

But the mother of a 10-year-old victim, Kian Pirfalak, could be heard on social media videos blaming security forces for the shooting of her son.

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A video posted on social media and purporting to be from Pirfalak's funeral showed protesters chanting "Khamenei we will bury you."

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of those videos.

On Friday, Tasnim reported pro-government demonstrators in the northeastern city of Mashhad, where two members of the Basij militia were killed on Thursday.

Two intelligence agents were killed in clashes with protesters on Thursday night, according to the Revolutionary Guards' news site.

It also said that three other Revolutionary Guards and a Basij member were killed in Tehran, and one Basiji and one member of the police were killed in Kurdistan on Thursday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-protests-khomeini-home-1.6656129