“The Special Rapporteur expresses his shock at the unprecedented use of excessive and lethal force by State security forces during the November 2019 protests, including by the police, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Basij militia,” read special rapporteur Javaid Rehman’s report to the UN General Assembly.
According to his report, at least 304 people were killed in 37 cities across Iran between 15 and 19 November, 2019. Rehman believes the actual death toll is much higher.
The protests broke out after the government’s surprise decision to triple the price of fuel. People, already suffering under an economic crisis and American sanctions, took to the streets to vent their anger. The supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a statement backing the government’s decision and calling on security services to quell the unrest.
Rehman reported at least 200,000 people joined protests in 29 of Iran’s 31 provinces, though other estimates put the number much higher. The majority of the protesters were peaceful, but they were met with a “violent response,” said Rehman.
“Analysis of nearly half the victims’ corpses reveals they were shot in the head or neck in at least 66 cases and in the chest or heart in at least 46 cases. The pattern of shooting at vital organs, established by eyewitness accounts, video footage and the documented causes of deaths, demonstrates that security forces were “shooting to kill” or with reckless disregard as to whether their actions caused death,” reads his report.
The government said the crackdown was justified against armed protesters in some cases, and in other cases denied responsibility, saying the violence had been committed by “rioters.” Rehmen refuted this claim, saying the protesters had been “predominantly peaceful and not posed a threat to life.”
Tehran launched an investigation into the deaths, but Rehman said the process is not transparent or independent and there is evidence that families of victims are being harassed and threatened.
At least 7,000 people were arrested during the protests. In a report released this week, Amnesty International condemned a “catalogue of cruelty meted out to detainees and their families by Iranian officials away from the public eye.”
Detainees have reportedly been denied medical treatment, tortured, and forced to confess.
Just weeks after the November protests, new demonstrations broke out after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752, killing all 176 people on board. Security forces again used force against demonstrators. Rehman said he was concerned “of a trend in the Islamic Republic of Iran of suppressing the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and assembly.”
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)