Top Cleric Reiterates Call For Executing Iran Protesters

This was the ultimate act of defiance against the clerical regime that has failed to control nationwide protests since mid-September. The demonstrations have turned into a popular movement, reaching the farthest corners of the country, that simply aims to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

The demonstrations Thursday night commemorating those killed by government forces in the past few days drew into the night while protesters set fire to government buildings and seminaries.

In Khomein, the birthplace of Ayatollah Khomeini, people attacked and torched his family house which was turned into a museum in recent years. This unprecedented act of defiance became a sensation on Persian social media, with tens of thousands of people watching and sharing the video of the incident.

Videos show angry demonstrators also set fire to a seminary in the religious city of Qom near Tehran, as young people have targeted clerics in the street for verbal abuse and flipping their turbans off their heads.

Stones and Molotov Cocktails have become the main weapons for protesters who pelt anti-riot forces and set fire to large government propaganda banners in the streets. They also attack police stations and more often torch buildings used by the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, who play a major role in attacking and killing protesters.

Government media said Friday that three Basij militiamen were killed Thursday in the religious city of Mashhad, while videos emerged showing other government agents wounded and running naked in the streets.

Overnight protests were also staged in scores of cities including Mashhad, Shahrekord, Masal, Sanandaj, Esfahan, Arak, Yazd, Saqqez, Lahijan, Bandar Abbas, Bijar, and Kermanshah. The geographic distribution of these cities covered from the northeast to the south and west of the country, with large protests also in central Iran.

Anit-regime slogans were chanted in tens of neighborhoods in capital Tehran.

Security forces fired live rounds and tear gas in several cities to crack down on the protesters.

In Bukan, people attacked government buildings torching a justice ministry office.Protesters in Rasht, also set fire to the office of a member of parliament.

Angered by killing of a 10-year-old child in Izeh in the oil-rich Khuzestan province, activist groups have called for mass protests across 20 cities on Friday.

According to Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization, at least 342 people including 43 children and 26 women had been killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests until Wednesday.

Thousands have also been arrested in the last two months, with some being at risk of receiving death sentences for security-related charges.

Friday is expected to be another intense day of protests, as anonymous activists have called for continuing nationwide demonstrations until Monday, November 21.

People chanted slogans at the clerical regime during the burial ceremony of Aylar Haqqi on Friday morning in the presence of a large crowd of mourners in Tabriz cemetery.

Aylar Haqqi, a medical student had reportedly taken refuge in a building during Wednesday demonstrations, where the regime agents found her and pushed her from the top of the building. A rebar pierced through her abdomen and out from her back. However, the regime announced she had died after falling into a construction dig.

Meanwhile, some sources quote a relative of Aylar saying she has been killed by direct fire of security forces, but in order to deliver her body to her parents security agents forced them to say she died after falling from top of a building.

Reports on social media say another young person named Ali Araghi was also killed in Tabriz on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, an anonymous group called Freedom-seeking Revolutionaries of Azarbaijan in a statement called on people in all cities of the province to take to streets every day beginning Friday.

According to Iran Human Rights Organization, security forces had killed at least 342 people, including 43 children and 26 women as of Wednesday. There is no new estimate for the past two days of intense protests.

A wide range of Iran-related topics were discussed during the session, including how the UK can help support the protesters, prevent the Islamic Republic from another round of mass executions like the ones in 1988, and how to deal with the threats posed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard both in the region and inside the UK. 

The threats against Iran International and BBC Persian journalists were also mentioned by Conservative MP Bob Blackman, Shadow Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Bambos Charalambous, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Americas and Caribbean David Rutley, and Shadow Minister of State for Security Holly Lynch.

The MPs were concerned that President Raisi, who is one of the main culprits behind the 1988 prisoner massacre that led to the killing of thousands, will orchestrate a similar carnage in cooperation with the IRGC and the judiciary. 

The MPs referred to the death sentences handed to several protesters this week and expressed concerns that a similar fate will be expected for a large number of protesters, particularly following a call by 227 Iranian parliamentarians who are pushing for the death penalty. Moreover, calls for proscription of the IRGC are getting stronger in the British political sphere as they are the main force that would go on with the purge. 

So far, nearly 400 protesters have been reported dead – including about 50 children – and over 15,000 have been detained since the current wave of protests engulfed Iran following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, it was said. However, the figures are likely much higher, but the authorities do not release any data and obscure the ways for human right groups to obtain information.

Blackman said, “Contrary to the reports that the Minister mentioned, the reports I have are that more than 60,000 people have been arrested.” He added that “President Raisi, was responsible as the prosecutor in Iran for 30,000 executions of political prisoners in 1988, so the direction from the top is very clear... We are also aware that sentencing and executions are beginning in Iran, and that many thousands of people may end up being executed.”

Rutley argued that the threats to press freedom in Iran, now extended to the UK, were a sign of the regimes growing weakness in the face of ‘grassroots’ protests.

Describing the level of violence against protesters as “utterly appalling,” Rutley said, “The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, but it is all the more abhorrent when those sentenced are being arrested for standing up for their rights.”

He added that “the frequency of these death sentences is only likely to increase as the regime processes the thousands of arrests that have been made during the protests. The Iranian judicial system is notorious for its lack of transparency and process, and this barbarism is just one of many threatening and intimidating techniques that the regime has rolled out in response to the protests.”

Blackman was another MP that asked the government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist group, but Rutley reiterated the government’s position of not commenting on potential proscriptions.

Speaking on behalf of the opposition, Charalambous and Lynch asked about the steps the UK Government is taking to protect journalists and UK nationals critical of the regime. In response, Rutley reiterated his previous points about summoning the Iranian Chargé d’affaires and the support being provided by the police. 

Citing a report from MI5 of 10 assassination attempts on British residents this year, Lynch called for measures to remove the Islamic Republic-linked actors from the UK

She also asked what steps the government was taking to remove actors linked to the Iranian government from the UK citing a report from MI5 of 10 assassination attempts on British residents this year. Rutley’s response cited the Foreign Secretary’s warning to the Islamic Republic’s chargé d’affaires and promised that the Government would continue to monitor the situation.

Other contributors to the debate repeated Bob Blackman’s request about the need to proscribe the IRGC and for the Government to do more to support the protesters. Rutley’s responses made clear the Government’s support for the protesters, but they did not announce much by way of new measures.

In a letter issued by a high-ranking army commander, he demanded daily reports on the arrest of army personnel and their families during protests, as well as paying attention to "subversive actions" against military facilities.

Hossein Safaralizadeh, commander of an army base in the southern city of Shiraz, has also mentioned that the army’s inspectorate has also warned other commanders in three provinces of Esfahan, Yazd and Charmahal-Bakhtiari to follow up on such cases on daily basis.

This letter may suggest that the number of army personnel who are showing sympathy toward the protest movement, or family members participating in protests is on the rise and top military officials are concerned about it.

“The presence of army personnel and their families in riots, their arrest by the security, writing anti-government slogans on the walls of the barracks, and the amount of possible damage to the barracks and army housing units must be reported daily… through text, phone, or reports,” reads the letter.

Iran’s traditional Army, as distinct from the Revolutionary Guard, is widely criticized for not acting against the brutality of Basij militiamen, IRGC forces, and police who are ruthlessly killing innocent people during the uprising.

Analysts believe that, in the past years, the Islamic Republic has provided key positions of the army to the members of the Revolutionary Guard to eliminate the possibility of forming an opposition within the army.

In the past three days, the grassroot nature of the protests manifested itself in small towns, where people were almost unstoppable and brought the security forces to their knees. 

Government forces have killed nearly 350 people since the protests began following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September, and each death has fueled more protests since holding mourning ceremonies and funeral services is culturally important for Iranians.

No day passes without some event in honor of one or more protesters in cities across Iran. In addition, hundreds of families also hold ceremonies for their loved ones who were killed three years ago during the November 2019 unrest when security forces began firing at people from the first day of protests, killing at least 1,500 citizens. Every one of these ceremonies is an opportunity for people to hold gatherings and express their resentment against the regime. Thursday was no exception as many funerals and mourning gatherings morphed into protest rallies. 

Another new low for the clerical regime is killing children, whose deaths enrage Iranians even more and their funerals and mourning ceremonies bring out larger crowds. According to human rights groups, over 40 children were already killed by government agents until this week when security forces killed several more. Some children take part in the protests but many simply happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, when riot police or government vigilantes open fire.

Mourning ceremonies for a 10-year-old boy in the city of Izeh, in Khuzestan province, was one of the main events of the Thursday protests in several cities, as social media exploded with depictions inspired by his death. 

In addition to pockets of protests in large cities, which have been scenes of protests and clashes during the past two months, more protesters turned out in towns with less than 50,000 population, blocking streets, chanting antigovernment slogans and setting fire to government buildings. 

Law enforcement forces in small cities normally tend not to respond violently to the protesters because people in such cities usually know each other’s families. Many of the people who are now members of Basij paramilitary forces are cracking down on people who used to be their classmates or neighbors while they were growing up. Therefore, the regime transfers forces from other cities, but the strategy is only partially useful because outside forces do not know the localities as well as its residents, so they are easily outsmarted by the protesters, making towns fall under the control of the people. 

On Thursday, some towns were scenes of clashes that earlier were not hotbeds of protests. Semirom and Khorasgan in Esfahan province, Paveh and Sarpol-e Zahab in Kermanshah, Khomein in Markazi Province, Eyvanki in Semnan, Khonj in Fars, Qorveh in Kordestan, Khoy in West Azarbaijan, Sarableh in Ilam, and Masal in Gilan were some of the small cities and towns whose residents held remarkable protest rallies on Thursday. 

The cities that have become well-known for the bravery of their citizens were also among the places of biggest demonstrations. People on social media say Sanandaj witnessed its largest rally in the past two months.