UN voices concern at detainees' treatment as protests continue in Iran

UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights claims Iranian authorities have been moving injured protesters from hospitals to detention facilities and refusing to release the bodies of those killed to their families.

Iran has been gripped by demonstrations since the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in police custody last month.
AFP

Iran has been gripped by demonstrations since the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in police custody last month.

The UN human rights office has voiced concern at Iran's treatment of detained protesters and said authorities were refusing to release some of the bodies of those killed.

"We've seen a lot of ill treatment ... but also harassment of the families of protesters," Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a Geneva press briefing on Friday, citing multiple sources.

"Of particular concern is information that authorities have been moving injured protesters from hospitals to detention facilities and refusing to release the bodies of those killed to their families," she said.

Shamdasani added that in some cases, authorities were placing conditions on the release of bodies, asking families not to hold a funeral or speak to the media. 

Protesters in detention were also sometimes being denied medical treatment, she said.

Iran has been gripped by demonstrations since the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in police custody last month. The unrest has posed one of the boldest challenges to Iranian leadership since the 1979 revolution.
READ MORE: Iran security forces use tear gas, open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini

Loading...

Clashes flare up

Video footage on social media showed protesters in the city of Zahedan, close to Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, on Friday chanting against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Authorities have dismissed two senior police officials in Zahedan after the Sistan-Baluchistan security council said on Friday it had concluded an investigation into the unrest at the request of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, conceding "negligence" by officers and the deaths of "innocent" civilians.

In a statement published by state news agency IRNA, the council announced the dismissal of Zahedan's police chief as well as the head of a police station.

Dozens of people were killed in clashes in the city four weeks ago during anti-government protests. The provincial security council has said armed dissidents had provoked the clashes, leading to innocent people's deaths, but admitted "shortcomings" by police.

Rights groups have said at least 250 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested across the country. 

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said its intelligence unit had foiled a bomb attack in the southern city of Shiraz, two days after a deadly shooting at a shrine there, the guards' news agency Sepah News said.

Wednesday's shooting, which was claimed by Daesh, killed 15 worshippers at the Shah Cheragh shrine.

READ MORE: Over a dozen dead as gunmen attack shrine in Iran's Shiraz

Loading...
Route 6