Government steps up crackdown on Iranian protesters

Interior Minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar

After the mass demonstrations of Ashura Day on December 27, the government is making all efforts to discourage protesters from taking to the streets again. They have started a new wave of widespread arrests coupled with repeated threats from senior figures of the establishment.

While the Prosecutor General talked earlier regarding the imminent execution of some of the recent detainees, today the Minister of Interior announced that he has instructed the police to show no “leniency” toward “rioters” and to immediately arrest people who try to join them.

The Interior Minister added that since the senior clergy and top judiciary officials have identified protesters as “enemies of the state,” it is clear how to deal with them.

The terms used for the protesters, “mohareb” and “mofsed-e fel-arz,” are described as “those engaged in armed activity against people’s security and freedom” which is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic Judicial laws.

These terms have been used by hardline clerics such as Ayatollah Janati and are green lights for the judiciary to start issuing death penalties.

The Minister of Interior claimed the recent protests were completely planned by foreign powers and added: “we have tracked all the anti-regime movements of the past 30 years in the recent disturbances.”

Mostafa Mohammad Najjar also maintained; “We have arrested a number of “monafeghin” and the judiciary is making all efforts to hold the court proceedings of these seditious elements as soon as possible.”

“Monafeghin” is the term used for the opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Scores of members of this organization were executed in the early years of the Islamic Republic and in the language of the establishment they remain the staunched enemies of the system.

Today, Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran warned that the judiciary’s decision to execute some of the recent detainees will lead to “greater instability and public anger.”

In the past six months, Iranians have been involved in persistent protests against the government which they claim came back to power in June by rigging the ballot. Protesters have refused to back down despite fierce violence exercised against them by the establishment.