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Iranian authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people in what Human Rights Watch described on Tuesday as a “brutal campaign” of mass, arbitrary and violent detentions aimed at terrorizing the population since late December.
The crackdown, carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other security bodies, amounted to a “coordinated, brutal mass clampdown to quash further dissent and conceal their atrocities,” the group said, citing videos of security forces violently arresting protesters and interviews with families of detainees and the forcibly disappeared.
Protests erupted in Iran in late December after a sharp collapse of the national currency and surging inflation, beginning in Tehran and spreading nationwide. Authorities responded with deadly force, using live ammunition and killing at least 28 protesters and bystanders between Dec. 31 and Jan. 3, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
“As a whole nation remains in shock, horror, and grief, and families still search for their loved ones in the aftermath of the massacres of January 8 and 9, authorities continue to terrorize the population. Arrests continue and detainees face torture, coerced ‘confessions,’ and secret, summary, and arbitrary executions,” said Bahar Saba, a senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.
In a Jan. 26 statement, the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guards said at least 11,000 people had been summoned by security forces. By Feb. 17, 10,538 had been referred for prosecution and 8,843 indictments issued, according to the judiciary’s spokesman.
The rights group said that in violation of bans on torture and guarantees of fair trials, the state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting had aired hundreds of coerced confessions by protesters, including children, noting that such statements have historically been used to justify death sentences and arbitrary executions.
Human Rights Watch said 30 detainees — including minors — now face capital punishment, with officials seeking to sway public opinion by labeling protesters mohareb, or “waging war against God,” a charge punishable by death.
“Systematic impunity has enabled Iranian authorities to repeatedly commit crimes under international law,” Saba said.
Last week, a panel of experts affiliated with the United Nations urged Iranian officials to disclose the fate and whereabouts of all those detained or missing after the protests, warning that “the true scale of the violent crackdown on Iranian protesters remains impossible to determine at this point.”
“The discrepancy between official figures and grassroots estimates only deepens the anguish of families searching for their loved ones and displays a profound disregard for human rights and accountability,” the experts said.
