Iran Crackdown: 900 Deaths, 13,000 Arrested

Iran Roundup for December 1st & 2nd: Tehran's Regime Loses its Top EU Cheerleader, 900 Protesters Murdered, 13,000 Arrested

by The Free Iran Herald

As of today, the reported casualty statistics for the protests of November 15-20 are 900 killed, 6,000 wounded, and 13,000 arrested, by the regime. The numbers increase with each day as more and more testimonies from Iranians are posted on social media.

Many of those detained are said to be in critical condition. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network has reported that 200 protestors, some of whom were under the age of 18, from cities scattered around Iran’s western provinces have been taken to an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) base in Sanandaj, where they have been tortured. Many of these protestors had been shot or otherwise wounded, but the IRGC is refusing to allow them to receive medical treatment.

Regime Interior Minister Abdol Reza Rahmani-Fazli said that “confessions” from detained protestors would soon be broadcast on regime-run TV. Showing public “confessions,” induced through severe torture, is a standard practice of the Khomeiniist officials.

The Internet is still blocked in several Iranian provinces, largely those provinces bordering Iraq and Pakistan.

Even elements within the regime are beginning to admit that the repression is going “too far.” Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the Islamic Parliament (Majles), said in an interview today that the IRGC has been conducting “illegal” arrests, and he criticized regime-controlled media for not discussing the protests and their aftermath. He added that “dissent in Iran is still there like a fire under the ashes.”

Other officials are boasting of their role in killing protestors. Leila Vaseghi, the manager of Qods township, which saw heavy fighting, admitted in an interview today that she ordered IRGC personnel to kill demonstrators. 

Crowds had momentarily seized her offices after her security guards ran away or joined the protestors. Vasgehi fled to an IRGC base, and the Guards retook control of the town, after killing an unknown number of people.

1/2 Leila Vaseghi, governor of Ghods settlements says she personally ordered the police to shoot protesters entering the building @#IranProtests even though police wasn’t given such order from the top. People from the area reported shootings outside of the government building… pic.twitter.com/MSnxq5arty

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) December 1, 2019

Many of those who were killed were children, as the graphic video below, of a 12 year old boy being murdered by the IRGC, shows.

Both inside and outside Iran, however, people are continuing to visibly show their support for Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the heir of the Iranian monarchy. In Qom, the headquarters of the Shi’a clergy, that was once the bastion of the regime but is now a scene of dissent and anger towards it, a banner with Pahlavi’s face was hung off a bridge, yesterday.

While mass protests may be subdued for now, the struggle of the Iranian workers’ movement, which has endured for two years, for the right to unionize, as well as receive fair and regular pay, remains strong. The Defenders of Labor Rights Association has released a statement in support of the November 15^th uprising, which reads in part: “These protests, which took place in almost all cities across the country, reflect the widespread discontent with the current political and economic system, that doesn’t care for the lives of those it oppresses.”