Families of protesters "released"; Deputy Interior Minister calls November protesters "thugs and thugs"

While news has been released of the release of the families of protesters detained in Isfahan, the parliamentary deputy interior minister has called the November 2019 protesters "thugs" and denied the interior minister's responsibility for the killing of the protesters.

A day after news broke of the arrest of the families of some of the victims of the protests in Isfahan, news on social media indicated that they had been released on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Kolivand, the parliamentary deputy minister of the interior, has called for legal action against a representative who called for the impeachment of the interior minister and said that his hands are "stained with the blood of the people."

According to media reports in Iran, Ahmad Alireza Beigi, a representative from Tabriz in the parliament, said on Wednesday that the interior minister is not qualified to serve in this position and that his hands are stained with the blood of the people.

He also referred to the statements of the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who recently said that the damage caused to the country in the November 2019 events "was preventable and could not have happened, and the fault of the Minister of Interior in this matter is obvious."

In response to this comment, Mohammad Javad Kolivand, the deputy parliamentary minister of the Ministry of Interior, called the Tabriz representative's remarks "exaggerated claims and untrue statements" and said: "Unfortunately, a number of citizens and security officers were killed in the course of confronting the thugs."

The November 2019 protests, which were initially a reaction to the sudden increase in gasoline prices, quickly shifted direction and targeted the Islamic Republic government. However, these protests were met with severe repression, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

Iran's Interior Minister has said that between 200 and 225 people were killed in these protests, but Amnesty International, announcing the identities of at least 304 of those killed, has emphasized that the death toll may be much higher.

Reuters, however, reported that at least 1,500 people were killed in the November 2019 protests, and quoted "three sources close to Khamenei's inner circle and a fourth official" as saying that the leader of the Islamic Republic had told senior officials in the country to "do whatever is necessary to stop" the protests.

Previously, officials at various levels of the Islamic Republic had also called the November protesters thugs.

For example, on the morning of November 16, 2019, two days after the protests against the increase in gasoline prices began, Ayatollah Khamenei called the protesters "villains" and called on "those responsible for maintaining the country's security" to "fulfill their duties."

Yadollah Javani, the IRGC's political deputy, also called the protesting people "enemy forces" and "thugs," saying that the "enemy" "identifies these people through cyberspace" and that if gasoline were not more expensive, "it would have the intention of bringing its army into the scene somewhere by the end of the year."

However, the families of those killed in Aban said in an interview with Radio Farda that not only have their complaints to identify their children's killers been unsuccessful and they have been asked to close the case by receiving blood money, but they have also been pressured to declare their loved ones martyrs and blame the protesters for their murder.

These pressures continue, and on Wednesday, April 8, a bus carrying the families of some of those killed in recent Iranian street protests was seized, and at least 22 of them were arrested while returning from the mausoleum of Sardar Asad Bakhtiari, an Iranian constitutionalist. Reports indicate that they have been released.

Source: Radio Farda