Iran ‘must end’ crackdown on protesters, says international fact-finding mission

GENEVA (AA): Iranian authorities must stop their crackdown on protesters and put an end to the wave of executions, mass arrests and detentions, a fact-finding mission of the UN Human Rights Council has said.

“It (Iran) must respect, fulfil and protect the rights of all people in Iran, especially women and girls,” the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said in its first oral update to the UN Human Rights Council.

Protests erupted in Iran in September 2022 following 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s arrest by the country’s morality police and subsequent death while in police custody.

“Ten months on, Jina Mahsa’s family’s right to truth and justice remain unfulfilled, and we are concerned that domestic investigations have fallen short of international human rights norms and standards, including the requirements of promptness, independence, and transparency,” said Sara Hossain, the chair of the mission.

The mission said that no official data is publicly available regarding those arrested, detained, charged, or convicted in connection with the protests.

Viviana Krsticevic, a member of the mission, said: “We are concerned by the continuous detention of human rights defenders and lawyers defending the protesters and at least 17 journalists, including Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who first reported on Jina Mahsa’s death in custody.”

According to reports received by the fact-finding mission, at least 26 individuals have been sentenced to death in connection with the protests, while dozens more have been charged with offenses carrying the death penalty. At least seven men have been executed.

It underlined that the mission has sent seven letters to the Iranian government for a visit to the country to gather information critical to its investigations. “These have so far gone unanswered,” it said.

The fact-finding mission will give a thorough report on its findings at the Human Rights Council’s 55th session in March 2024.