Around 50 police officers have been killed in the protests that have shaken Iran since September, said the Deputy Foreign Minister, making a first official assessment in a context of intensified repression against Kurdish areas in recent days.
Iranian security forces have clashed with protesters across the country, with the UN human rights commission saying more than 300 protesters have been killed since the September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday that Iran faces a “full-fledged human rights crisis” with 14,000 people arrested so far, including children. He was speaking before an extraordinary session in Geneva with a possible vote on the establishment of a fact-finding mission.
“Around 50 policemen were killed during the protests and hundreds were injured,” Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who is also Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, said in an interview. on Indian television.
He gave no figures on the number of protesters killed, but said the Interior Ministry had formed a commission to investigate the deaths.
Protests sparked by Amini’s death after he was arrested by vice police for attire deemed inappropriate under Iran’s strict Islamic dress code quickly spread across Iran. The anger has centered on women’s rights, but protesters have also called for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian clerical leaders have recently stepped up crackdowns in Kurdish areas, with the UN human rights commissioner saying on Tuesday that more than 40 people had been killed in the past week.
An MP from the predominantly Kurdish town of Mahabad said he had been summoned several times for his stance in favor of the protesters.
“Justice brought charges against me as a representative of the grieving people instead of preserving the legal rights of protesters and victims’ families in Mahabad and Kurdish cities,” Jalal Mahmoudzadeh tweeted on Wednesday.
Prominent Sunni Muslim cleric Molavi Abdulhamid, who has openly criticized the treatment of Iran’s predominantly Sunni ethnic minorities by the mostly Shia ruling elite, tweeted against the crackdown in Kurdish areas on Wednesday.
“The dear Kurds of Iran have endured many sufferings such as severe ethnic discrimination, severe religious pressure, poverty and economic hardship. Is it right to respond to their protest with war bullets?” tweeted Molavi.
