Wounded protester hid in body bag to survive, rights group says

A 19-year-old Iranian protester, Shahab Fallahpour, was killed by security forces during demonstrations in the southwestern city of Andimeshk, people familiar with the matter told Iran International.

The sources said Fallahpour, a wrestler and a resident of the Shohada neighbourhood in Andimeshk, was shot during protests on Parto Street on Friday, January 9. They said he was targeted by sniper fire from a rooftop and that the shooting was carried out without warning.

According to the sources, Fallahpour’s body was buried three days later, in the early hours of January 12, at around 4 a.m., in the presence of his parents, without a funeral ceremony and under the supervision of government forces.

The sources said the family has been pressured and threatened not to speak to the media.

Iranian authorities have charged an Iranian protester with moharebeh (waging war against God) over alleged links to the United States and Israel, a charge that carries the death penalty under Iranian law, Norway-based rights group Hengaw said on Wednesday.

Hengaw said the protester, Salah Yousefi, 35, from Javanrud in Iran’s Kermanshah province, faced the charge following what the group described as a rapid and rushed process. It said his family were informed orally by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the northern city of Sari a few days after his arrest.

The rights group said the charge has not been officially announced and that no written notice or formal ruling has been provided to the family.

According to Hengaw, Yousefi was first arrested on Jan. 13 by intelligence agents of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and released after one day. He was rearrested a day later by the same force and transferred to a Revolutionary Guards detention facility in Sari.

Hengaw said Revolutionary Guards officials in Sari told the family that their son had “deep connections” with Israel and the United States, that any sentence would be carried out in Tehran and that they would no longer respond to follow-up inquiries.

The group said the officials also indicated that Yousefi had likely been transferred to security detention centres in Tehran.

Hengaw said Yousefi has been denied access to a lawyer and other basic detainee rights since his arrest, and that his family has been kept unaware of developments in his case.

"As Iranian officials vow 'no leniency' the risk of an imminent execution grows," Hengaw said.

"The President has indicated that there have been some discussions, and that's what resulted in the Iranian statement that the killings will stop," US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told Bloomberg in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.

"There's been a lot of killings, and that's terribly unfortunate and horrific," he added. "These people were defenseless. They were just coming out into the street saying, we want to change. You shouldn't be killed for for expressing a viewpoint that you want changes."

"So Iran, Iran needs to change its ways," Witkoff said. "They need to do that. And if they do, if they indicate that they're willing to do that, I think we can diplomatically settle this."

NetBlocks, an internet monitoring group that tracks network disruptions worldwide, said on Wednesday it had written to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial team urging it to add context to an op-ed by Iran’s foreign minister that was published during an internet blackout in Iran.

“Instances where a government has its writing published while it cuts off citizens’ ability to do the same through telecommunications blackouts should be prefixed with two vital pieces of context for transparency,” NetBlocks Director Alp Toker wrote in the letter, a copy of which the internet monitoring group posted on X.

Toker said the Journal should state “by what means the op-ed was submitted, digitally, over the internet, or otherwise,” and make clear “that an equal platform was denied to that government’s opposition due to digital restrictions.”

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have flared in the wake of the deadliest crackdown on protests in the history of the Islamic Republic earlier this month.

Trump warned Iran not to kill protestors and vowed in a social media post the "help is on the way," in comments which heartened demonstrators and appeared to signal readiness for a military intervention which has yet to materialize.

"Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack," Araghchi said in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, referring to a 12-day war with Israel and the United States.

At least 12,000 protestors were killed by security forces, according to medics and government sources speaking to Iran International.

The veteran diplomat and strident defender of Tehran's crushing of the nationwide demonstrations had his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland revoked this week.

"An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House," he added. "It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe."

Trump is weighing "decisive" military options toward Iran in the wake of the mass killing of demonstrators, the same newspaper reported on Tuesday, as a US carrier strike group steams toward the region.

Meanwhile the United States has ramped up its bid to lay claim to Greenland, a part of Denmark, citing Arctic and world security in a diplomatic drama which is opposed by the European Union and is straining the nearly 80-year-old NATO alliance.

Araghchi cited what he called Europe's support for Trump's move to exit an international deal over Iran's disputed nuclear program in his first term, saying the United States was behaving in a unilateral way which challenged global order.

"Sadly for Europe, its current conundrum is the very definition of 'blowback'. The E3/EU faithfully obeyed and even abetted President Trump when he unilaterally abrogated the Iran Nuclear Deal," he wrote on X.

"Mr. Trump's threat to take over Greenland by any means—unlawful as it is under any conception of international law or even a 'rules-based order'—could not happen to a more deserving continent," he added.