The death in custody in Iran of a Kurdish woman that sparked widespread protests must be “constantly” investigated, Iran’s president has said, as he lamented what he said were “double standards” Westerners in the matter of human rights.
Ebrahim Raisi told a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York that Mahsa Amini’s death while in the custody of Iran’s moral police “must be investigated.”
“I contacted his family at the earliest opportunity and assured them that we would continue to investigate this incident vigorously… Our utmost concern is safeguarding the rights of all citizens.”
On Amini’s death, he said the authorities were doing what they had to do and that the responsibility now rested in the hands of the judiciary. He claimed that the coroner’s initial investigations into Amini’s death showed that he died of heart failure or a stroke, and not a physical beating by the moral police.
But he said: “If his death was due to negligence, it will definitely be investigated and I am committed to follow up on the issue regardless of whether the international forums take a position or not.”
Protesters reject the state’s findings, pointing to reports that officers hit Amini in the head with a baton and slammed his head into one of their vehicles.
Human rights groups fear that at least 36 people have died in six days of protests, sparked by the September 16 death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman.
On Thursday, protesters set fire to police stations and police vehicles in several cities, and Iran shut down the internet in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan, blocking access to platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp, in an attempt to curb a movement of growing protest. Iranian women have taken to the streets and the internet to burn their headscarves and cut their hair.
Amini was arrested for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf “inappropriately”. Activists said the woman, whose Kurdish given name is Jhina, had suffered a fatal blow to the head, a claim denied by officials, who have announced an investigation. Police continue to maintain that she died of natural causes, but her family suspects she was beaten and tortured.
The president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, speaks this Thursday at a press conference in New York. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
Raisi, a former hardline head of the judiciary accused of sending hundreds to his death in the past, said Iran would not tolerate “acts of chaos”, referring to the six nights of protests over his death , but said his country accepted the legal protest.
The judiciary has ordered courts to take a hard line with the protesters, claiming the protests are now being led by foreign agents and fueled by anti-Iranian social media, a familiar accusation of the regime when dissent erupts.
He tried to change the situation in the country he was visiting by asking about police shootings in the US. “Have all these deaths been investigated?” he asked.
“Every day, in different countries, including the United States, we see men and women dying in police confrontations, but there is no sensitivity about the cause and treatment of this violence,” he added.
The extent of the ongoing unrest in Iran, the worst in several years, remains unclear as protesters in more than 12 cities, venting anger over social repression and the country’s growing crises, continue to find -se with security forces and paramilitaries. Iran’s military said on Friday it would “confront enemies” to ensure security, the harshest warning yet to protesters.
Raisi, who formally addressed the general assembly on Wednesday, said bad things happened to people at the hands of authorities everywhere, making vague references to the US and the UK. He called for the “same standard” worldwide to deal with such deaths at the hands of the authorities.
Raisi’s comparison reflects a common approach by Iranian leaders, who when faced with accusations of rights violations often point to Western society and its “hegemony” and demand that those nations be similarly held accountable.
The protests have turned into open defiance of the government, with some Iranians calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic itself. They are the most serious demonstrations since 2019, when protests erupted over a government hike in the price of gasoline.
While not directly condemning the protests, Raisi said: “What’s happening, having demonstrations… of course they’re normal and totally accepted… We have to differentiate between protesters and vandalism. Demonstrations are good for expressing specific problems”.
The US imposed sanctions on Iran’s morality police and leaders of other security agencies on Thursday, saying they “routinely use violence to suppress peaceful protesters”. US officials promised to take further action in the coming days.
Erfan Mortezaei, Amini’s cousin, told the IranWire website that the dead woman’s family was still under pressure to publicly support the regime’s version of events: that she did not die of her injuries in the head that he suffered during prison, but from complications of a historic brain surgery. .
Over the weekend, Mahsa’s 17-year-old nephew Arkan was arrested. He was released Thursday morning on a 500m toman (US$16,000) bond. The judiciary told the family it was because he had gone to the offices of a news agency based in the city, presumably with the intention of telling them about his aunt.
“The goal of this pressure,” Erfan said, “is to get a forced statement from Mahsa’s family in order to stop the protests across the country.”
Nasser Kanani, the spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry, wrote in a tweet without reference to the national protests in Iran: “The real violators of human rights do not have the moral competence to comment on the rights humans”.
In an index of the scale of the unrest, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani said 43 buses, 54 bus stations and 23 fire engines had been damaged.
The protests have no organized leadership and, while initially focused on women’s right not to wear the hijab in public or be harassed by the moral police, there have been broader calls for freedom or overthrow of the regime.
Iranian officials have tried to drive a wedge into popular support for the protests by emphasizing their anti-Iranian violence.
US-based human rights groups had tried to serve a writ on Raisi on behalf of former political prisoners, including Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the dual British-Australian national he held in prison for two years.