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Iran Human Rights report: 476 protestors killed in Mahsa Amini protests and 100 at risk of execution – JURIST

Iran Human Rights Tuesday reported that Iranian security forces have killed at least 476 people protesting the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini, including 64 children and 34 women. This is an increase from the group’s previous report. In addition to the civilian casualties, at least 100 people arrested in relation to protests face execution. The group stresses that these numbers are minimums. Between reports still being verified and deaths unreported due to fear, Iran Human Rights estimate that the true numbers are higher. These numbers also only reflect deaths and arrests related directly to street protests and do not include people who died under “suspicious circumstances.”The Director of Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, called for more international and domestic support for the protestors, saying:Despite more than 100 days passing since the start of the nationwide protests, hundreds being killed, thousands arrested and protesters being executed, the people’s uprising for real change and achieving fundamental rights continues. The challenge facing people is the price they have to pay to achieve this goal. More widespread participation inside and outside the country and the international community supporting this uprising, can help lower the cost.Tehran’s Prosecutor General, Ali Alqasi-Mehr, pushed back against the criticism and claimed that 83 percent of arrested protesters were released from custody–a claim that has not been independently verified. Since Mahsa Amini’s death at the hands of Iran’s morality police in September, people have taken to the streets nationwide to protest her death and reject discriminatory policies like compulsory veiling laws. Iranian security forces have responded with violence and repression, sentencing protestors to the death penalty and cracking down on internet access. In turn, international groups like the UN removed Iran from international women’s commissions and continue to urge authorities to end their violence.JURIST’s dispatch correspondents in Iran continue to file reports on this intimidation and violence. Last week, one JURIST dispatch correspondent reported that security forces held a gun to her face, saying:When my father fought for his country in the war between Iran and Iraq, his greatest fear was that they would lose the war someday. But now, years after the war in Iran itself, a stranger points a gun at his daughter. Dictators’ armies kill people, shoot at their eyes and bodies, beat them with batons, arrest them, rape them and execute them in order to scare them, but here we are in the fourth month of this battle. Now all we know is that we owe it to the martyrs of these freedom movements to keep going on this path fearlessly, because all dictators are fed by fear.