New York Post – Iran’s security agents have arrested more than 50,000 people suspected of taking part in last month’s anti-regime protests, according to activist groups — and families of the detainees fear they may never see their loved ones again.
During the internet blackout in Iran, reports have emerged of a nationwide dragnet by Tehran’s forces, who have been tasked with hunting down anyone suspected of participating in January’s protests.
Shiva Nazarahari, an organizer with the Committee for Monitoring the Status of Detained Protesters, said authorities have been reviewing municipal street cameras, store surveillance video and drone footage to track people to their homes or offices, leading to mass arrests.
So far, the committee has verified the names of more than 2,200 people who were arrested in the raids, including 107 college students, 82 children as young as 13, 19 lawyers and 106 doctors.
The groups verifying the arrests said that many teachers, actors, business owners, filmmakers, and even reformist figures close to President Masoud Pezeshkian have all been detained.
Documenting all the arrests has proven difficult, with many of the people detained disappearing once they enter Iran’s prison system.
Abolfazl Jazbi, a man who suffers from a severe blood disorder that requires medication, was arrested on Jan. 15 at a factory in Isfahan under suspicion of attending the protests.
Since his arrest, his family has not heard a word from him, according to the monitoring committee.
Atila Sultanpour, 45, is another man who has vanished after he was taken from his home in Tehran on Jan. 29 by security agents who beat him severely, according to Dadban, a group of Iranian lawyers based abroad who are documenting detentions.
Arrested protesters who have been able to get messages to their families have raised allegations of beatings, sexual assaults, torture, and other human rights violations at the hands of Iran’s security forces.
Sisters Nyusha, 25, and Mona Nakhii, 37, were taken from their homes at 2 a.m. on Jan 16, with agents forcing them to unlock their phones as they hauled the pair to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, a friend of the siblings told the Associated Press.
The sisters were then transferred to the Qarchak women’s prison in the outskirts of the capital, which suffers from overcrowding and a lack of hygiene, according to human rights groups.
Those being detained have also been denied their right to legal counsel and are often held for days or weeks before being allowed to call their family.
Should the defendants manage to get representation, authorities may issue court summons against the attorneys or even arrest them, according to Dadban.
“The following of the law is in the worst situation it has ever been,” said Musa Barzin, an attorney with Dadban.
Even relatives of the people arrested have found themselves incurring the state’s wrath, with families who support their loved ones seeing their bank accounts suspended, according to Dadban.
Others have also reported having their SIM cards blocked and their property confiscated by officials.
The crackdown on anti-regime protests peaked on Jan. 8 and 9, when security forces violently attacked hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in more than 190 cities across Iran.
The two-day crackdown is believed to be the deadliest in Iran’s modern history, with more than 7,000 people killed, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, which is still tallying the deaths.
Despite the bloody crackdown and subsequent arrests, many continue to openly defy the regime as they push to end Iran’s theocratic rule.
The Writers’ Association of Iran, an independent group with a long tradition of dissent, hailed the protests as an uprising against “47 years of systemic corruption and discrimination.”
A national council representing school teachers also put out a statement urging people not to remain silent about the arrests of children and students.
“Do not fear the threats of security forces. Refer to independent counsel. Make your children’s names public,” the group said in a statement.
The group estimates that at least 200 minors were killed in the crackdown, with new names added to their list regularly as they continue to confirm the deaths.