Iranian Sunni Leader Under Pressure To End Weekly Protests In Zahedan

In a statement read out in a video message, they urged the regime to end “the economic and military siege" of the city, as well as to stop creating the atmosphere of fear and insecurity. 

They also mentioned the situation in the country as evidence of the continuation of the "violent crackdown” on people of the city, calling for ending the repression and releasing people who were arrested during recent protests. 

They criticized the regime’s increasing use of military force in the city that has led to widespread anxiety, and crisis in the city. 

In addition to Javanrud in western Kermanshah province, they also denounced the military atmosphere of other places, especially cities with Kurdish population in western Iran, and Baluchi population in Sistan-Baluchistan province as well as the city of Semirom in the central Esfahan province.

The military checkpoints at the gates of these cities should be removed so that normal life can be restored for the residents of these cities, they added. 

Late in December, security forces attacked the memorial services of some of the protesters that were killed earlier in the city, shooting one more person to death. Since then, clashes have intensified between people and the security forces, most of whom are deployed from other locations to the city of about 50,000 residents. According to local sources, regime agents have stepped up the atmosphere of terror and repression, raiding the homes at night without any court order and arresting people.

Erfan Kakaie, Bahaoddin Veisi, Tahsin Miri, Masoud Teimuri, Jamal Azami, Johar Fatahi and Esmail Gol Anbar were killed by government forces during the bloody protests on November 20 and 21 in Javanrud. The ceremony to mark the fortieth day after their death was supposed to be attended by a large crowd of people last Saturday, December 31. Regime forces fired live rounds and tear gas at the people attending the procession, killing a 22-year-old resident identified as Borhan Eliasi. 

Iran's Kurdish cities have been at the forefront of the protests that started with the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini from the Kurdish city of Saqqez in mid-September. People in most Kurdish-populated areas in Kordestan, West Azarbaijan and Kermanshah provinces have relentlessly protested and defied government forces since Amini’s death.

The situation is not as tense in other parts of the country, but issuing death sentences as well as long prison terms for detained protesters continues. Pressures on the families of the dead and detained protesters are unrelenting and still there are reports of unexplained deaths of prisoners within a few days after their release. 

Meanwhile, following the finalization of the death sentence of Mohammad-Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, who are sentenced to death for the alleged murder of a pro-regime Basij member during a protest near Tehran on November 3, the situation at the prison they are being kept in is also tense. 

On Wednesday, two members of the Australian House of Representatives -- Keith Wolahan and Aaron Violi -- called on the Islamic Republic to stop issuing death sentences for people arrested in recent protests. They also offered to take political sponsorship for fifteen imprisoned protestors who are facing the death sentence. “Mohammed Mehdi Karami is only 22 years of age and has just been sentenced to death for protesting,” said Wolahan in a letter to the Charge d'affaires of the Islamic Republic in Australia. 

Amid increasing pressure on detained protestors, the wave of hunger strikes in prisons is on the rise with the detainees’ health in danger. Armita Abbasi, and over a dozen other female prisoners in Kachouie prison of Karaj, west of Tehran, have gone on hunger strike since Monday to protest their indefinite detention, lack of access to lawyers and the danger of harsh verdicts.

ISNA news agency in Tehran quoted Abdol Naser Derakhshan Thursday as saying that the shortage of bread and gasoline in various cities of the relatively poor province has worsened during the past few days. Sistan-Baluchistan in the southeast has a large Baluch ethnic population who are mostly Sunni.

On Sunday, Ismail Hosseinzahi, representative of Khash in parliament also said that the people of Sistan-Baluchistan stand in queues for bread almost three hours and the fuel queues reach three kilometers.

In response to criticisms, the general manager of grains department of the province denied the "shortage of flour" saying that long queues to buy bread are only formed at weekends as people worry about regular protest on Fridays.

Baluch citizens and activists believe the shortages are systematic and aimed at increasing pressure on people due to their weekly protests within the past thirteen weeks.

The Sunni population of the provincial capital Zahedan have been holding antigovernment rallies for more than 3 months. On September 30, security forces opened fire on civilians killing more than 93 protesters and onlookers.

They say pressures have increased in the past two weeks after the appointment of Mohammad Karami, a senior IRGC commander as governor of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Reports say security forces have arrested more than 100 Baluch citizens since past week on the pretext of fighting criminals and illegal foreign nationals.

Fatemeh Mohammadi, who was freed earlier in the week, was fortunate enough that she went through some detoxification process immediately after her release, but 19-year-old Yalda Aghafazli died last month after being released from prison without any medical preconditions. 

At the hospital, tests indicated a significant amount of narcotics in her blood system. According to reports, many of her friends who were arrested during protests and were later released have shown similar symptoms of poisoning. 

Mehdi Zare Ashkzari was an Iranian student at the University of Bologna, Italy, who had traveled to Iran for the funeral service of his mother. He was arrested during the Iranian protests and fell into a coma after release and died 20 days later this week. In his case, reports say he had suffered intense tortures. 

Some of those who die after time in prison commit suicide. There are allegations that most of the detainees were force-fed heavy doses of drugs during the days at the detention centers, that seems to heighten suicidal thoughts. 

In November, Arshia Emamgholizadeh, 16, was arrested in East Azarbaijan province for tossing a turban of a cleric, which has become a new symbolic act of protest. He was kept in prison for ten days. After ten days, he was released on bail. Arshia committed suicide two days later. He had told his friends that prison authorities gave them some pills to swallow every night, as well as torturing them. 

Dr. Maziar Ashrafian Bonab, UK-based forensic and medical geneticist, told Iran International in early December that there is probably no mysterious drug involved but the psychological trauma that these young adults went through made them suicidal. However, he cited some reports that said suicidal ideation heightens after intake of derivatives of potassium aspartate. Such medicine can lead to instant death in high doses and suicidal thoughts in lower doses. 

He also called on all those who are released from the regime’s prisons to take blood and mineral tests as soon as they get out. According to a study at the UK and reported by the Guardian, even the happy drug Prozac class of antidepressants can make healthy men, women and children with no history of depression feel suicidal.

Some doctors believe that whatever they are taking in detention, the abrupt stop of the drug causes suicidal tendencies, because there are many psychiatric medicines that should be tapered out otherwise their withdrawals lead to serious damage. 

A group of members of the medical community -- who called themselves The Physicians' Unity (Etehad Pezeshkan) -- has called on international bodies to probe the deaths of the Iranian protesters. Many people are of the opinion that the authorities are intentionally killing the protesters without actually taking responsibility for them to avoid international outcry. 

Such reports about the death of prisoners after release are not limited only to the last three to four months of protests, but the frequency of such deaths has never been so high. For instance, Siavash Bahrami, a Kurdish political prisoner, died three days after his release in May 2022. Hengaw, a Norway-based rights group which monitors abuses in Kurdish areas, reported at the time that he was injected with some unknown substance in the prison. 

The Islamic Republic is killing its critics in so many ways now, from shooting them on the streets to executions, torture and psychological pressure. Earlier in the week, Maryam Salimian, an Iranian painter, committed suicide after she found out at the airport that she is banned from leaving the country to pursue her passion after she was admitted to a university in Austria.

In a letter to the Charge d'affaires of The Islamic Republic in Australia Tuesday, Keith Wolahan and Aaron Violi said no one should receive deaths sentence for exercising political rights.

Keith Wolahan an Aaron Violi also offered to take political sponsorship for fifteen protestors imprisoned in Iran who are facing the death sentence.

“Mohammed Mehdi Karami is only 22 years of age and has just been sentenced to death for protesting,” said Wolahan in the letter.

Wolahan also added that it was heartbreaking to hear of Karami's phone call with his father where he asked him not to tell his mother about what is just being announced.

For his part, Aaron Violi also stressed that as members of the Australian Federal parliament, he and Keith Wolahan sponsored 15 protesters for protection from the Islamic Republic regime, including Karami.

“Behind every protester that is in prison is their families that are suffering, and we are calling on the Islamic Republic regime to show mercy on these protesters and their families,” he underlined.

Earlier in November, Wolahan expressed solidarity with Iranians in their fight against clerical rule, saying that the Islamic Republic will face the consequences of mistreating protesters.

Wolahan represents the division of Menzies where the largest population of Iranians live in Australia.

Amid the protests after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, Iranian clerical rulers executed two anti-regime protesters namely Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, both 23.

The Iranian popular cinema star, who was detained three weeks ago after expressing support for nationwide protests, was freed from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran Wednesday on a bail of more than 30,000 dollars, or ten billion Iranian rials.

Photos published on social media show that she was welcomed by a group of cinema artists after the release.

Alidousti, who previously published a photo of herself without headscarf on social networks, was not wearing the mandatory hijab in these photos again.

This comes as on Wednesday Iran’s authoritarian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with a group of pro-regime women that "The hijab is undoubtedly a religious and inviolable necessity.”

Reports said that 20 days ago Taraneh Alidousti was transferred to ward 209 of Evin prison which is administered by the intelligence ministry.

The detention of Alidousti drew widespread international reactions, especially from the most prestigious film festivals in the world, such as Cannes, Berlinale, and Tribeca.

Over 600 artists around the world signed a petition urging the Islamic Republic to release the Iranian actress.

In the online campaign launched under the title "Justice for Taraneh Alidousti", dozens of the world's most prominent figures, including Mark Ruffalo, Pedro Almodovar, Penelope Cruz, Juliette Binoche, Alfonso Cuaron and Ken Loach joined the signatories.