Iran detains Mahsa Amini’s father, cracks down on protests: Rights groups

Authorities in Iran have arrested Mahsa Amini’s father and prevented her family from holding a vigil to commemorate the first anniversary of her death, rights groups said, amid reports of sporadic protests across the country despite a heavy security presence.

Amjad Amini was arrested early on Saturday as he left the family home in Saqez in western Iran and released after being warned not to hold a memorial service at his daughter’s graveside, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), the 1500tasvir monitor and the Iran Human Rights (IHR) group.A report in the official IRNA news agency, however, denied that Amjad Amini had been arrested. The agency later said security forces had foiled an assassination attempt against him.

The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested by Iranian morality police last year for allegedly flouting mandatory dress codes, led to months of some of the biggest protests against clerical rule ever seen in Iran and drew international condemnation.

More than 500 people, including 71 minors, were killed in the protests, while hundreds were wounded and thousands arrested, rights groups said.

Iran carried out seven executions linked to the unrest.

As night fell on Saturday, a heavy security presence in Iran’s main cities and in mostly Kurdish areas appeared to have deterred large-scale protest rallies but human rights groups reported sporadic confrontations in several areas of the country.

Videos posted on social media showed people gathered on a main avenue in the capital Tehran cheering a young protesting couple as drivers honked their car horns in support.

One of Iran’s most high-profile prisoners, prize-winning rights activist Narges Mohammadi and three other women detainees burned their headscarves in the courtyard of Tehran’s Evin prison to mark the anniversary, according to a post on Mohammadi’s Instagram.

Outside Tehran, at the Qarchak prison for women, rights groups said a fire broke out when security forces quelled a protest by inmates. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network said special forces beat up women in the prison and fired pellet bullets. IRNA reported that a fire engulfed the women’s ward in Qarchak after convicts awaiting execution set fire to their clothes. It said the blaze was put out and there were no casualties.Protests were also reported in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, and in Mashhad, northeast of the capital. One video posted on social media showed a group of demonstrators in the Karaj neighbourhood of Gohardasht chanting, “We are a great nation, and will take back Iran”, while drivers honked their horns and shouted encouragement.