According to Amnesty International, Iranian security forces used unlawful force, including mass arrests, to mercilessly suppress mostly peaceful rallies that erupted across the country in recent weeks. Activists, protestors, and onlookers, including children, have been subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, and other ill-treatment as a result of the surge of arrests.
Security personnel unlawfully fired birdshot at peaceful demonstrators from Iran’s Kurdish minority in the city of Naqadeh in Western Azerbaijan province on August 7, according to images, footage circulating on social media, and eyewitness testimony. Most people have avoided going to the hospital for fear of being arrested, tortured, or subjected to other forms of ill-treatment, according to witnesses.
“In order to preserve their iron grip on power and crush opposition, the Iranian authorities have once again granted their security personnel carte blanche to inflict severe bodily violence on protesters. The fact that those who have been injured are putting their lives and health at risk by refusing to seek medical help in a hospital for fear of arbitrary arrest speaks volumes about the authorities’ cruel methods of torture and other ill-treatment of arrested protesters,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“It is past time for the international community to take concrete action in response to the Iranian government’s repeated use of lethal force against protesters with impunity, including by supporting the UN Human Rights Council’s establishment of an investigative and accountability mechanism to collect evidence of crimes under international law and facilitate independent criminal proceedings.
On the 7th of August, security personnel used tear gas and batons to disperse peaceful protestors in Naqadeh. During the proceedings, a guy dressed in civilian clothes shot and killed Mohammad Alizadeh, a 27-year-old male. The latest crackdown in Naqadeh comes just weeks after Iranian security forces used live ammunition to suppress mostly peaceful protests over water shortages in the southern province of Khuzestan, which spread to Lorestan province, killing at least 11 protesters and bystanders, including a teenage boy, and injuring a large number of people, including children.
Protestors reportedly reported being harassed and assaulted by males dressed in civilian clothes who were believed to be local citizens who came out in support of the security forces, holding knives and sticks and throwing stones at protesters with the apparent approval of law enforcement personnel. On social media, videos show gangs of riot police and persons dressed in civilian clothing beating demonstrators and causing property damage.
Pellet-firing shotguns are prohibited from being used in any policing circumstance under international law and norms. Lethal force is therefore prohibited unless it is absolutely necessary to guard against an imminent threat of death or serious injury, which according to Amnesty International’s research has never been the case in Iran in recent years.
Washington Center For Human Rights urges the Iranian authorities to immediately put an end to the current wave of arbitrary arrests and detentions, release all those who have been detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and protect all detainees from torture and other forms of ill-treatment.