- A journalist and an activist who exposed the death of Mahsa Amini were arrested in Iran.
- Amini died after being arrested by the moral police.
- So far, 36 people have died in the protests.
Iranian security forces have arrested one of Iran’s most prominent civil society activists and a journalist who played a key role in exposing the Mahsa Amini case that sparked nationwide protests, it was reported on Friday.
The arrests come amid growing protests against Amini, who was pronounced dead on September 16, three days after being arrested by Tehran’s morality police, with activists saying at least 36 civilians were killed in a police crackdown.
Majid Tavakoli, an activist who has been jailed several times in Iran in recent years, including after a disputed 2009 election, was arrested overnight at his home, his brother Mohsen wrote on Twitter.
READ | “We expect the number to increase” – 36 dead in Iran protesting the death of Mahsa Amini, NGO reports
Another prominent activist still in Iran, Hossein Ranaghi, was giving an interview to London-based Iran International TV when security agents came to his home, the channel reported.
In a video released by the channel, Ronagi looks worried but insists that the interview continues.
It said the free-speech activist and Washington Post writer managed to avoid arrest by sneaking out through the parking lot of his building and later released a video message from an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, Tehran-based journalist Nilufar Hamedi, who went to the hospital where Amini was lying in a coma and helped reveal the case to the world, has been arrested, the Shargh daily, where she works, wrote on Telegram.
Photojournalist Yalda Maieri was also arrested this week while covering protests in Tehran, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Thursday.
“Iranian authorities must immediately release all journalists arrested for covering the death of Mahsa Amini and the protests that followed,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.
Activists accused the Iranian authorities of suppressing the protests even before the protests began, when two of the country’s most famous directors, Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, were arrested.
