Many Express Concern Over Secret Trial Of Iranian Dissident Rapper

The arrests happened after anti-regime protests in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on June 23, including four young teens, Amir Alizahi, 13, Adnan Alizahi, 14, Iraj Hashemzahi 14, and Esfandiar Hashemzahi, 15.

Amir and Adnan Alizahi, cousins, were reportedly released on Friday evening after 10 hours of detention and torture by the security forces in the province which has become the heartland of anti-regime activity.

Haalvsh website, which covers the events in Sistan-Baluchestan province, reported that in the city of Rask alone, plainclothes agents forced four citizens, including two teenagers, into a car and abducted them.

"At least 50 people from a village, who had attended the Friday prayer, were arrested by the repressive forces on Friday," Haalvsh wrote of the unrest in Rask.

So far, no information has been published about the exact number of those arrested in different cities of the flashpoint province on Friday.

This Friday was the 38th consecutive week that people of the province held demonstrations against the government following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September, but the rallies were significantly larger following calls for protests by Sunni clerics and activist groups as the regime seems to have intensified its campaign against their religious leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid.

The prominent religious leader has been relentless in his condemnation of authorities in his weekly Friday sermons since September when nationwide protests erupted in the country.

It is unknown whether the young man fell or was pushed, as has long been documented as a tactic used by regime forces to eliminate opponents across Iran.

Police conducted the Thursday night raid under the auspices of inspecting for women flouting hijab rules after receiving calls from neighbors. 

"A young man who was trying to escape fell from the sixth floor and lost his life,” a statement made to Iranian daily Qods claimed. “This party was a mixed-gender one with alcoholic beverages served and the case is still under investigation". Mashhad's judicial and law enforcement authorities have not yet commented on the issue.

Iran's strict Islamic laws prohibit the mixing of genders in parties and public gatherings. It is only allowed in families for men and women to hold parties in the same room. Wedding parties or other large gatherings should have separate spaces for men and women.

However, the restriction is often ignored, with some bribing local police to look the other way. In the last two years, there have been many surprise raids, particularly when young people held parties with alcohol.

Karun Human Rights Organization said the attack happened in Yazd Central Prison June 19, during which a number of prisoners were injured.

“The prison's medical facilities were insufficient to treat the injured, and some of the prisoners were transferred to Yazd City Hospital,” added the report.

Among the injured, Mohammad Haydari, 35, from Ahvaz, is known to be a political prisoner but there is no information about his health so far.

The Arab political activist, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the charge of moharebeh (War against God), was stabbed in the chest.

One of the prisoners who witnessed the conflict told Karun that more than 20 Afghan prisoners were also injured.

According to this report, another Arab political prisoner named Jafar Beit Abdollah, 33, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison on the charge of moharebeh was also injured on his arm.

Karun added that most of the Afghan prisoners and some political prisoners have been transferred to solitary confinement.

Yazd Central Prison is home to about three thousand prisoners, among them over one thousand foreign nationals held in the worst conditions.

Eleven political prisoners in Yazd live in inappropriate conditions and have to endure discrimination and insults from officials and targeted conflicts inside the prison staged to harass them.

"Hijab is a religious and political obligation, and I am surprised by those who claim that the government should not interfere in this regard,” said Mohammad Mossadegh on Friday.

"If the hijab is not observed in the street, the government has the right to interfere," he claimed.

At the same time, Asadollah Jafari, Chief Justice of Esfahan Province announced that 1,200 cases have been filed against women who refused to wear the mandatory hijab.

He also accused those women who do not observe the mandatory hijab, of "promoting vice".

These statements come as Ahmad-Reza Radan, the Police Chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran, once again threatened women regarding their hijab earlier this month.

According to him, women who put photos and videos without hijab on social media, or people who encourage others to do this will be taken to court.

Iranian women began widespread defiance of forced hijab after popular protests broke out last year when Mahsa Amini, a young woman, was killed in 'morality police' custody after getting arrested for not fully following hijab rules.

Iranian women appearing in public without headscarves has become a common sight across the country. Celebrities keep publishing photos and videos of themselves defying the regime and images of scuffles with security forces are still seen across social media on a daily basis.

While some politicians have demanded an end to compulsory hijab and laws that legalize discrimination against women, there are many others who have been talking about new methods and punishments to enforce hijab.

This Friday was the 38th consecutive week that people of the province held demonstrations against the government but the rallies were significantly larger following calls for protests by Sunni clerics and activist groups as the regime seems to have intensified its campaign against their religious leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid.

The prominent religious leader has been hammering the authorities in his weekly Friday sermons since September when nationwide protests erupted in the country.

People in the Sunni-majority cities of Iranshahr, Chabahar, Khash, Rask, Pishin, and Souran poured out into streets after Friday prayers, with videos showing residents hurling stones at the security forces in the neighborhoods of their towns.

According to the advocacy group Haalvsh, which reports on issues affecting the Baluch people in the predominantly Sunni province, security forces opened fire at the protesters who were chanting slogans in several of the cities.

The website also said that dozens of people have been arrested as the regime's plainclothes forces attacked the protesters and even raided their homes following the rallies.

Friday’s demonstrations were particularly large and fierce compared with previous weeks as reports emerged this week that the IRGC intelligence had assigned a hitman to poison and kill the vocal Sunni cleric of Zahedan.

Haalvsh reported on Monday that the security guards of Makki Mosque, in which Mowlavi Abdolhamid makes his sermons, arrested a man in the guise of a religious student who wanted to assassinate him.

Since September during ongoing protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, Mowlavi Abdolhamid has made fiery speeches against the heavy crackdown and killing of protesters, calling government actions "felony". He has also called for holding a referendum in Iran with the presence of international observers.

As usual the internet was shut down in Zahedan and several other cities in the region on June 23 but it did not stop people from showing up for the rallies or publishing footage from their protests and Abdolhamid’s sermons.

During his sermon this Friday, Abdolhamid slammed the regime over its suppression of those critical of the performance of the ruling power, even the officials and members of parliament.

Emphasizing that Iranians will never give up their demands for freedom and justice, the Sunni cleric said that the national interests of the people have been damaged by the decisions and actions of the "governments and officials of the country".

Highlighting that people from all walks of life are under pressure due to wrong decisions by regime officials, he said that he does not foresee a promising future for the country where challenges remain unresolved.

In order to improve the economy, capable people and efficient plans and mechanisms are needed, “and until these are not provided, the basic problems cannot be solved," he added.

Iran is struggling with a serious economic crisis partly due to US sanctions, but also because of its government-controlled system, lack of competition and widespread corruption.

In a tacit reference to the assassination attempt against him, Abdolhamid supported the legitimate political struggle to achieve freedom, justice and a healthy economy, saying that "We pursue the interests of the people and in this path, we accept any threat to our lives."