Iran’s security forces planned in advance to deploy snipers and use shoot-to-kill tactics during the nationwide protest crackdown on Jan. 8 and 9, a former Iranian interior ministry official told Iran International.
The former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity and previously also served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said preparations dating back to 2022 included “marking and identifying elevated locations for sniper deployment” and “ideological theoretical training and psychological preparation to kill, including firing final shots at protesters.”
He said the planning also involved “training and educating criminal elements to play the role of leaders in gatherings, both to identify people and to steer street movements.”
Verified video of the protests showed security forces firing live ammunition from elevated positions, using pellet guns, raiding hospitals and shooting wounded protesters.
The former official said the Jan. 8-9 crackdown was not a short-term response but the result of long-term structural and operational preparation by security bodies.
Gholamreza Derikvand, Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Vienna, had broken with Tehran and is now in Switzerland. There was no immediate comment from Iran’s foreign ministry.
Sources told Iran International that officials at the ministry had avoided discussing the case, with some staff citing security concerns.
Derikvand previously served as charge d’affaires at Iran’s embassy in the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014 and was viewed by colleagues as a career diplomat who could have risen to ambassador.
The move follows a similar case last month in which Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad, a senior Iranian diplomat based at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, left his post and sought asylum in Switzerland with his family.
Diplomatic sources said fears linked to Iran’s political unrest and concerns over the stability of the governing system had prompted the decision.
