UN rights chief says Iran security forces chased injured protesters into hospitals
The United Nations human rights chief said there were indications that Iranian security forces carried out mass arrests during the crackdown on protests, including pursuing wounded protesters into hospitals.
“We have indications that the security forces made mass arrests, even pursuing injured people into hospitals,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council at an emergency session on Iran.
Turk said thousands of people were killed during the crackdown.
“Thousands were killed in Iran’s crackdown on protests, including children,” he said.
The emergency session was convened to discuss what the council described as “alarming violence” used against protesters and to consider documenting alleged abuses for possible future legal proceedings.
Iran has sharply reduced operations at its consulate in central London, Iran International reported, following protests that took place outside the building during the recent unrest in Iran.
According to information received by Iran International, the consulate’s first floor has been fully evacuated and locked, and staff numbers at the site have been significantly reduced. Consular services are now being provided at a much more limited level than before.
Images obtained by Iran International in recent days showed office equipment and administrative materials being removed from the building, with vehicles seen transferring staff and items to another location earlier this week.
The changes follow demonstrations held outside Iran’s embassy and consulate in London during the nationwide protests in Iran.
British police previously deployed metal barriers and vehicles to secure the area during the demonstrations.
A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said adversaries would fail in any attempt to damage the Islamic Republic, repeating defiant rhetoric from Tehran amid heightened tensions.
Ahmad Vahidi said the Guards were created to protect Iran’s Islamic system and remained prepared to confront what he described as external threats.
“Enemies should know they cannot inflict any harm on the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Vahidi said, according to state media.
EU lawmaker Hannah Neumann said she will host a public meeting next week on the violent repression of protests in Iran.
“Next Monday, 26 January, I will host a public meeting on the violent repression of protests in Iran, with a focus on minority groups,” Neumann wrote on X.
The session will be publicly livestreamed, she added.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council instructed newspaper editors and online media managers to stop publishing independent reporting on protest deaths and to avoid interviewing bereaved families, according to information shared with Iran International.
The instruction, according to the information received by Iran International, was conveyed during a meeting with managers of domestic media outlets and explicitly required them to refer only to figures released by state bodies, while avoiding any independent accounting of deaths.
The same directive, the sources said, also prohibited interviews or conversations with families of those killed.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council instructed newspaper editors and online media managers to stop publishing independent reporting on protest deaths and to avoid interviewing bereaved families, according to information shared with Iran International.
The instruction, according to the information received by Iran International, was conveyed during a meeting with managers of domestic media outlets and explicitly required them to refer only to figures released by state bodies, while avoiding any independent accounting of deaths.
The same directive, the sources said, also prohibited interviews or conversations with families of those killed.
Sources described as familiar with the decision said the measure was aimed at preventing broader disclosure of the scale of the killings of protesters, which they said occurred under direct orders from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Media managers question the order
The directive was delivered, the report said, as some domestic media managers challenged the government’s line during the same session, pointing to internal information suggesting a death toll in the thousands and questioning instructions issued under President Masoud Pezeshkian and the Supreme National Security Council.
Those participants, according to the account, argued there is a wide gap between official numbers and information circulating inside the country.
Iran’s National Security Council, a body operating under the Interior Minister, on Wednesday published figures for the first time covering deaths on January 8 and 9.
The statement put the number of killed protesters at 690. It also listed a total death toll of 3,117 across the two days, but described 2,427 of those as “martyrs” drawn from “innocent people and guardians of order and security,” a designation in the Islamic Republic’s official language generally used for those aligned with state institutions.
The Islamic Republic’s Martyrs Foundation also announced on Wednesday that military and security forces had taken the lives of only 690 protesters, while another 2,427 people were said to have been killed by protesters. The institution had initially reported 3,317 deaths, but hours later revised the figure down to 3,117.
Iran International said the official numbers differ sharply from information it has received, eyewitness accounts, and reporting by international media.
The outlet’s editorial board has previously put the number of protesters killed by state forces at at least 12,000, according to its published statement.
The number of civilians killed in Iran’s crackdown on protests may be more than 20,000, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said, citing reports from doctors inside the country, Bloomberg reported.
Mai Sato said earlier this week that civilian deaths were estimated at 5,000 or more, adding that medical reports suggested the toll could be far higher, at about 20,000 or more.
Iran International’s statement described the killings on January 8 and 9 as unprecedented in modern Iranian history in geographic spread, intensity of violence, and number of deaths.
