Mahsa Amini’s father detained by Iranian police on her death anniversary.
Human rights organizations claim that Mahsa Amini’s father was briefly detained on Saturday amid a significant security presence and on the day of the first anniversary of his daughter’s passing while in Iranian police custody.
According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Amjad Amini was warned not to remember his daughter’s passing before being set free.
According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA, which also denied that Amjad Amini had been detained, he was neither jailed nor given a warning.
Earlier, security forces were reportedly stationed around Amini’s home in Saqez, western Iran, according to reports from rights organizations and social media.
Also read: Iran: From Mossadegh to Mahsa Amini
The 22-year-old Kurdish woman’s death in custody for allegedly breaking the nation’s dress code sparked months of demonstrations, the biggest display of defiance against the authorities in years.
As Mahsa Amini’s father detained by Iranian police on her death anniversary, Despite government advice, Amini’s parents declared a “traditional and religious anniversary ceremony” would take place at her grave in Saqez.
In Iran’s Kurdistan region, human rights organizations reported widespread strikes in a number of cities, indicating a sizable security force presence had been mobilized in anticipation of unrest.
However, according to IRNA, Amini’s hometown of Saqez was “completely quiet” and calls for strike in Kurdish areas had failed due to “people’s vigilance and the presence of security and military forces”.
It quoted an official in the Kurdistan province as saying: “A number of agents affiliated with counter-revolutionary groups who had planned to create chaos and prepare media fodder were arrested in the early hours of this morning.”
More than 500 people were killed in the protests that erupted after Amini’s death, including 71 minors, hundreds were hurt, and thousands were detained, according to rights organizations.
According to Reuters, Iran carried out seven executions that were related to the unrest.
In a report last month, Amnesty International said Iranian authorities “have been subjecting victims’ families to arbitrary arrest and detention, imposing cruel restrictions on peaceful gatherings at grave sites, and destroying victims’ gravestones”.
Several journalists, attorneys, activists, students, academics, artists, public figures, members of ethnic minorities accused of involvement in the protest wave, as well as the relatives of protesters killed in the unrest, have reportedly been detained, summoned, threatened, or fired, according to reports from Iranian and Western human rights organizations.
In August, Iran’s Etemad Daily reported that the family’s attorney was also accused of “propaganda against the system.” If found guilty, Saleh Nikbakht could spend one to three years in jail.
