Detainees from recent unrest: Officials are screening

Iranian officials say the “mercenaries” have confessed and the number of detainees released will be announced in the coming days. The fate of many detainees remains unknown. The Attorney General says all detainees are satisfied.

A few days ago, a journalist from Iran knocked on the window of communication with the world and tweeted: “Tak Tak, hello free world… I used 42 proxies to write this. Millions of Iranians do not have internet. Can you hear us?”

They heard his voice. It was reported that the author of the tweet, Mohammad Mosaed, had been arrested. The journalist is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of those arrested in recent days in connection with or related to the recent unrest in Iran. The police say they have arrested 180 of the main leaders. Other reports indicate that at least 5,000 people have been arrested in 12 provinces of the country.

There are no exact statistics on those arrested, nor has a specific organization claimed responsibility for the arrests of the past few days.

Arrested: Protesters and rioters

Officials in Iran say rioters have been destroying public property and killing people “incited by America and the hypocrites.” Brigadier General Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the IRGC, says: “God says in the Quran: Do not approach people’s property because people are reluctant to give it to you, and if you insist on taking their property, their hostility will arise.”

The deputy commander of the IRGC said, “In the first moments, there were public protests, and then a bunch of thugs entered the square.” In an interview with domestic websites, he spoke of rioters who “used light pistols to shoot many people in the stomach from a distance of one or half a meter, killing them.” Brigadier General Fadavi assured: “All the puppets and mercenaries who openly admit that they are mercenaries of the United States and the MKO have been caught, and the country’s judicial system will punish them severely.”

Officials also say that the rioters' line is separate from the protesters.

Upon hearing this sentence, the first question that comes to mind is that if the “connection between puppets and mercenaries” has been proven and they have been identified, what should be done with Mohammad Mosaedah, the students who were arrested in recent days according to published reports and some were taken to an unknown location by ambulance, and the people who took to the streets to protest their living conditions? Are they protesters or rioters? Mostafa Tajzadeh wrote on Twitter about the detained students, referring to the uncertainty of the charges, the judicial verdict, and the security agency responsible for the arrests: “We have gone from a secret government to secret arrests.”

Officials say they are screening.

Ali Asghar Jahangir, head of the Prisons Organization, said in an interview with ILNA that all branches of the judiciary have begun the necessary preparations to quickly determine the fate of the detainees.

Iran's Attorney General: All detainees are satisfied with their detention conditions

Domestic news agencies reported yesterday (December 2) that the Attorney General visited the detainees of the recent unrest in Fashafoyeh Prison. Fars has published a detailed report of the visit. In the report, we read that the Attorney General talks to the detainees, who are mostly “young and underage”; a 23-year-old who, according to him, was arrested for blocking traffic and after identifying his car’s license plate and says he had no way back or forward; another 20-year-old who says “the interrogators threatened some of his cellmates,” a 19-year-old student who was arrested at home and, according to Fars, claimed that “the officers told him that we have few detainees and we should arrest you too,” a 30-year-old who says he was watching and “was shot by the rioters,” and a young man who says “they blindfolded them and forced them to confess.” According to Fars, the Attorney General listens to all of them and promises many of them that he will look into the matter so that their fate will be known as soon as possible, and of course advises them to introduce their leaders.

According to Fars, during this meeting, the Attorney General asked “each and every” prisoner about their food situation, contact with their families, and information about their situation, and the detainees responded: “Yes, we have spoken to our families on the phone several times.”

"We are doing everything we can to ensure that no problems arise for the detainees."

The aforementioned report also mentions a 10-person emergency team stationed at Fashafoyeh Prison, which “performs outpatient surgeries if needed, and if detainees have wounds on their bodies, strong antibiotics are prescribed to control and prevent infection.” These personnel told the Attorney General that they have visited 200 people in the past few days, including 42 injured and 12 wounded.

The head of the Prisons Organization has assured that the events that occurred in Kahrizak in 2009 will not happen this time, saying: “The events of 2009 were part of a series that was not under the control of the judiciary and the Prisons Organization.” The official continued that they are doing everything they can to ensure that no problems arise for the detainees, and addressed their families: “To find out about the detainees, they should refer to the relevant judicial branches.”

With the internet connection, however, unverified news about the status and whereabouts of many detainees and long lists of names of those arrested in recent days in various cities in Iran are being circulated on social networks.

Meanwhile, the name of Mohammad Mosaed, who wrote on the Internet, which, according to Sardar Fadavi, is "a channel of American malice," only about the internet being cut off, is one of the names on the long list of detainees that the Islamic Republic of Iran officials now say they will announce in the coming days the number of those released.

Source: DW