ایران بریفینگ / فارسی

#iranbriefing/ A close ally of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that many young "hoodlums", some of whom might be convicted criminals, have been co-opted into the Basij militia and had played a significant role in suppressing street protests.

Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, prayer leader in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, and Khamenei’s representative in Razavi Khorasan Province, told a visiting group of parliament members on October 8 that the young men had undergone “cultural,” meaning religious, rehabilitation in joining local Basij groups. The cleric said they had played an important role in suppressing street protests, while combating poverty and deprivation in discharging their duties.

Iran experienced widespread unrest in 2017, 2018 and November 2019, when security forces, including the Basij, killed hundreds. Recently it was announced that the Basij would strengthen local units to improve ‘security.’

Hossein Hamednai, a Revolutionary Guards general killed in Syria in 2015, used the same tactic of recruiting detained criminals to suppress protests in Tehran following the 2009 disputed presidential elections.

Alamolhoda called on the parliamentarians to prevent “capitalists” from accumulating too much wealth and impoverishing people living in shantytowns. Alamolhoda, appointed by Khamenei as Mashhad Friday prayer leader in 2005 and a member of the Experts Assembly since 2007, is a powerful figure in the city and province, including in the oversight of the foundation managing the Imam Reza Shrine, whose businesses and property are valued in billions of dollars(link is external). Alamolhoda is also father-in-law of Ebrahim Raeesi, who headed the shrine before Khamenei appointed him as chief justice in 2019.

The ayatollah’s concern over poverty follows a dramatic economic downturn in the two years since the United States imposed draconian sanctions in 2018. The national currency, the rial, has lost most of its value while rising food prices are at hyperinflationary levels.
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ایران بریفینگ / فارسی

#iranbriefing / Another Police Brutality And Killing Video In Eastern Iran Angers The Public
Maryam Sinaee

Another video of police brutality and killing of a suspect from Iran's eastern province of North Khorasan has gone viral on social media. This is the second case of police brutality causing death of a detainee in less than a week in eastern Iran.

The video was first posted on Saturday shows police officers beating a man who has fallen on the ground in a street in the city of Esfarayen. The witness who filmed the incident can be heard on the video saying the police shot the man.

The victim has been identified as Mohsen Minbashi, 37. It is still not clear why the police had been pursuing the victims or why they shot him.

On Sunday, the Military Prosecutor of North Khorasan Province Mojtaba Zare' was quoted by the media that the family of the victim has filed a complaint for the police shooting. According to Zare', the forensic department is carrying out a post-mortem to determine the cause of death and injuries and CCTV footage from the area is being examined to shed light on the circumstances of the incident.

On October 20 police arrested and repeatedly assaulted another man, Mehrdad Sepehri, with pepper spray and shocker in the eastern city of Mashhad. The victim reportedly died of pepper spray injury in the police car on the way to the hospital. A video posted on social media showed Sepehri tied to a pole on the street while a police officer tortured him for 45 minutes before taking him away. While his brother told Iran International Television that police arrested Sepehri for a domestic disturbance, officials have been trying to portray him as an addict.

Many social media users have compared the incident with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May that lead to nationwide protests in the United States. Iranian hardliners used the killing as proof of racism and police violence against non-white Americans in their anti-US propaganda.

Killing of detainees by the police in Iran has increased in the past few weeks. At least three cases were documented in October of deaths under torture or by shooting of detained individuals. Authorities either try to make the vicitims responsible for their own deaths or make promises of investigations. But the country’s conservative Judiciary which closely collaborates with the police and intelligence agencies rarely issues a report after such killings.
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