The continued arrest and uncertainty of a number of survivors of the November 2019 protests
HRANA News Agency – A number of family members of the victims of the November 2019 protests are still in detention and in limbo in security detention centers, despite the passage of a week since their arrest. Peyman Gholipour, brother of Pejman Gholipour, one of the victims of the nationwide November 2019 protests, also announced that his mother, Mahboobeh Ramezani, has been sentenced to 100 lashes.
According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists Association in Iran, today, Monday, July 17, 2022, a number of family members of those who died in the November 2019 protests are still being held in security detention centers, despite a week having passed since their arrest.
On Monday, July 10, Nahid Shirpisheh and Mehrdad Bakhtiari, mother and uncle of Pouya Bakhtiari, Sakineh Ahmadi, mother of Ebrahim Kebatdar, Rahimeh Yousefzadeh, mother of Navid Behbudi, Mahboobeh Ramezani, mother of Pejman Gholipour, Saeed Damour, brother of Vahid Damour, and Somayeh Jafarpanah, sister of Mohsen Jafarpanah, were arrested by security forces. On the other hand, BBC Persian also reported the arrest of Talat Meshki, mother of Mohsen Jafarpanah, Iran Allahyari, mother of Mehrdad Moinfar, and Zeinab Mohammadi, mother of Mohammad Taheri. Of these citizens, Sakineh Ahmadi was released some time later.
On the other hand, Peyman Gholipour, Pejman Gholipour's brother, announced on his personal social media page that his mother, Mahbooba Ramezani, had been sentenced to 100 lashes by the judicial authorities, writing: "My mother has been under pressure for a long time and is constantly being threatened and has been summoned several times. But they took their last shot a few months ago and sentenced her to 100 lashes."
Sakineh Ahmadi, Rahimeh Yousefzadeh, and Mahboobeh Ramezani were arrested at Ms. Yousefzadeh's private home in Tehran, and Saeed Damour was arrested at her private home in Karaj. It is also said that Mehrdad Bakhtiari was arrested after a video was released about Ms. Shirpisheh's arrest and images of the broken lock on her home were released.
Hours after the arrest of these citizens, Fars News Agency, close to security institutions in Iran, published an article calling the detainees "rioters" and accusing them of "receiving money to cause unrest and insecurity" in Iran.
It should be noted that the November protests refer to a series of nationwide protests that began on Friday, November 14, 2019, with the announcement of an unprecedented increase in gasoline prices in dozens of Iranian cities, with an unprecedented presence of protesters on the streets, and continued for several days. Mohammad Javad Kolivand, a representative of the people of Karaj in the parliament, said that these protests took place in 719 locations across the country. Seyyed Hossein Naqvi Hosseini, the then spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the parliament, also announced the number of people arrested in these protests at around 7,000. According to reports from human rights organizations, hundreds of people also died as a result of these bloody protests.
