Iran plans to systematically crush the protests at any cost: Amnesty

“The Iranian authorities knowingly decided to harm or kill people."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/09/30 19:01

Iran is facing widespread protests over the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini at the hands of Iran's so-called morality police (Photo: Private/Amnesty)

Kurdistan Iran Amnesty Iran Protests Mahsa (Zhina) Amini IRGC

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Amnesty International in a report on Friday said that leaked documents show Iran’s highest military body instructed the commanders of armed forces in all provinces to “severely confront” Iran’s protests over the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police.

According to Amnesty International, the crackdown so far has left at least 52 identified victims dead and hundreds injured to date. According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR NGO), so far 83 people were killed in the protests.

In a detailed analysis issued on Friday, Amnesty International divulges evidence of the Iranian authorities’ plot to brutally crush the demonstrations by deploying the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij paramilitary force, the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran, riot police, and plainclothes security agents.

Amnesty International also alleged that Iranian security forces who either intended to kill protesters or should have known with a reasonable degree of certainty that their use of firearms would result in deaths.

“The Iranian authorities knowingly decided to harm or kill people who took to the streets to express their anger at decades of repression and injustice. Amid an epidemic of systemic impunity that has long prevailed in Iran, dozens of men, women and children have been unlawfully killed in the latest round of bloodshed,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, in the report.

“Without determined collective action by the international community, which needs to go beyond mere statements of condemnation, countless more face being killed, maimed, tortured, sexually assaulted or thrown behind bars solely for their participation in protests,” she added.

She also said the new documents show the “need for an international independent investigative and accountability mechanism.”