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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said Iran’s authorities had imposed an organized communications blackout to hide the mass killing, calling for urgent international action.
"Iran has fallen into an organized silence," Ebadi wrote on Instagram. "Cutting the internet, paralyzing communications, intimidating witnesses and shutting down media means the government wants to carry out the killing in silence and then erase its traces."
She cited Iran International, which said it had concluded after a multi-stage review of field and medical data, accounts from families and witnesses, and information from sources close to senior security and government bodies, that at least 12,000 people were killed over two consecutive nights on Jan. 8 and 9.
Ebadi said the issue was not only the scale of the deaths but what she described as the pattern of the violence.
"This is organized killing, with direct fire, under the cover of an internet shutdown," she wrote.
She called for the immediate restoration of internet access, an independent international investigation and the documentation and prosecution of those responsible.
A video circulated by Iran’s state media to promote pro-government rallies has gained wide traction online, with social media users questioning its authenticity and pointing to apparent inconsistencies, reflecting broader public mistrust of official messaging.
As nationwide protests continue, authorities have taken steps including staging government-organized countermarches, shutting down the internet, and tightening controls on the media to shape the narrative.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that the EU would swiftly propose further sanctions on those responsible for the repression of protesters in Iran.
"The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying," von der Leyen said in a post on X. "I unequivocally condemn the excessive use of force and continued restriction of freedom."
She said the EU had already listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety under its human rights sanctions regime.
"In close cooperation with HRVP Kaja Kallas, further sanctions on those responsible for the repression will be swiftly proposed," she said.
"We stand with the people of Iran who are bravely marching for their liberty," von der Leyen added.
Spain on Tuesday summoned Iran’s ambassador to Madrid to protest a crackdown on demonstrations, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said, according to AFP.
"The right of Iranian men and women to peaceful protest, their freedom of expression, must be respected," Albares told Catalunya Radio, adding that what he described as arbitrary arrests must stop.
"Iran must return to the dialogue tables and to the negotiating tables," he said, adding that Spain would put special emphasis on the rights of women.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticized Germany on Tuesday after Chancellor Friedrich Merz commented on the uprising in Iran, accusing Berlin of lacking credibility on human rights and "unlawful interference" in the region.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pointed earlier to “the final days and weeks of this regime” and said “The population is now rising up against this regime.
Addressing the German government, Araghchi wrote on X, “Do us all a favor: have some shame. Better yet, Germany should end its unlawful interference in our region—including its support for Genocide and Terrorism.”
