Tehran, Iran – A number of of Iran’s former leaders, together with some who’re at present imprisoned or beneath home arrest, have launched damning statements over the killing of 1000’s throughout nationwide protests, garnering threats from hardliners.
The Iranian authorities claims that 3,117 people had been killed throughout the antiestablishment protests. The federal government has rejected claims by the United Nations and worldwide human rights organisations that state forces had been behind the killings, which had been largely carried out on the nights of January 8 and 9.
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The USA-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has verified 6,854 deaths and is investigating 11,280 different instances.
“After years of ever-escalating repression, it is a disaster that might be remembered for many years, if not for hundreds of years,” wrote Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former reformist presidential candidate who has been beneath home arrest for the reason that aftermath of the Inexperienced Motion of 2009.
“What number of methods should folks say that they don’t want this method and don’t imagine your lies? Sufficient. The sport is over.”
Mousavi advised state forces to “put down your weapons and step apart from energy in order that the nation itself can convey this land to freedom and prosperity”, and confused that this should be performed with out overseas intervention amid the shadow of one other battle with the US and Israel.
He stated that Iran is want of a constitutional referendum and a peaceable, democratic transition of energy.
A gaggle of 400 activists, together with figures from inside and out of doors the nation, backed Mousavi’s assertion.
Mostafa Tajzadeh, a distinguished jailed former reformist politician, stated that he needs Iran to “transfer past the wretched situations that the guardianship of Islamic jurists and the failed rule of the clergy have imposed on the Iranian nation”.
In a brief assertion from jail final week, he stated this may be contingent upon the “resistance, knowledge, and accountable motion of all residents and political actors” and known as for an unbiased fact-finding mission to uncover the true points of “atrocities” dedicated towards protesters final month.
‘Main reforms’
Different former heavyweights have closely criticised Iran’s present course, however have averted calling for the efficient removing of the Islamic Republic from energy.
Former President Hassan Rouhani, who many imagine is eyeing a possible future return to energy, final week gathered his ex-ministers and insiders for a recorded speech, and known as for “main reforms, not small reforms”.
He acknowledged that Iranians have been protesting for quite a lot of causes over the previous 4 a long time, and insisted the state should hearken to them if it needs to outlive, however didn’t point out the web blackout and killing of protesters throughout his tenure in November 2019.
Rouhani added that the institution should maintain public votes on main matters, together with overseas coverage and the ailing financial system, with a purpose to keep away from additional nationwide protests and stop the inhabitants from seeking to overseas powers for assist.
Mohammad Khatami, the reformist cleric who was president from 1997 to 2005, adopted a softer tone and stated violence derailed protests that might have helped “develop dialogue to enhance the nation’s affairs”.
He wrote in a press release that Iran should “return to a forgotten republicanism, and an Islamism that embraces republicanism in all its dimensions and necessities, putting improvement along with justice on the core of each overseas and home coverage”.
Mehdi Karroubi, one other senior reformist cleric who had his home arrest lifted lower than a yr in the past after 15 years, known as the protest killings “against the law whose dimensions language and pen are incapable of conveying” and stated the institution is accountable.
“The wretched state of Iran at the moment is the direct results of Mr. Khamenei’s damaging home and worldwide interventions and insurance policies,” he wrote, in reference to Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in absolute energy for almost 37 years.
Karroubi famous one distinguished instance because the 86-year-old chief’s “insistence on the pricey and futile nuclear project and the heavy penalties of sanctions over the previous 20 years for the nation and its folks”.
Political prisoners rearrested
Three distinguished Iranian former political prisoners had been arrested and brought to jail by safety forces as soon as once more final week.
The Fars information company, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), stated the rationale for the arrests of Mehdi Mahmoudian, Abdollah Momeni, and Vida Rabbani was that that they had sneaked out Mir Hossein Mousavi’s assertion from his home arrest.
Mahmoudian is a journalist and activist, and co-writer of the Oscar-nominated political drama film, It Was Simply an Accident, which gained the Palme d’Or on the 2025 Cannes Movie Pageant. Momeni and Rabani are additionally political activists who’ve beforehand been arrested by the Iranian institution a number of instances.
The three had been amongst 17 human rights defenders, filmmakers and civil society activists, together with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and internationally recognised lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who co-signed a press release final week that put the blame for the protest killings on the supreme chief and the theocratic institution.
“The mass killing of justice seekers who courageously protested this illegitimate system was an organised state crime towards humanity,” they wrote, condemning the firing on civilians, the assaults on the wounded, and the denial of medical care as “acts towards Iran’s safety and betrayal of the homeland”.
The activists known as for holding a referendum and constituent meeting to permit Iranians to democratically resolve their political future.
Hardliners incensed
In hardline-dominated circles and amongst their affiliated media, the temper has been completely completely different.
On Sunday, lawmakers in parliament donned the uniforms of the IRGC, which was final week designated a “terrorist” organisation by the European Union.
They chanted “Demise to America” and promised they’d hunt down European army attaches working at embassies in Tehran to expel them as “terrorists”.
Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a cleric who represents northeast Mashhad within the parliament, advised a public session of parliament on Sunday that former President Rouhani should be hanged for favouring engagement with the West, echoing a requirement additionally made by different hardline friends in recent times.
“Right this moment is the time for the ‘main reform’, which is arresting and executing you,” he stated, addressing Rouhani.
Amirhossein Sabeti, one other firebrand lawmaker, condemned the federal government of President Masoud Pezeshkian – however not Khamenei or the institution – for continuing with mediated talks with the US.
“Right this moment, the folks of Iran are ready for a pre-emptive assault on Israel and US bases within the area, not talks from a place of weak spot,” he claimed.
