Five people were killed by Iranian security forces during protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, who was being held in police custody, according to a human rights watchdog.
Hengaw Human Rights, a Norwegian organization that monitors rights abuses in Iran, said five people were shot dead during protests in Iran’s Kurdish region on Monday. It said another 75 were injured in other cities over the weekend.
CNN could not independently verify reports of deaths and injuries.
The protests erupted after the death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in Tehran after being arrested by Iran’s morality police last week.
Iranian officials said Amini died on Friday after suffering a “heart attack” and falling into a coma following her arrest last Tuesday. However, her family said she had no pre-existing heart condition, reported Emtedad news, a pro-reform Iranian media outlet that claimed to have spoken to Amini’s father.
Edited security camera footage released by Iran’s state media appeared to show Amini collapsing at a “re-education” center where she was taken to receive “guidance” on how to dress.
Iran’s morality police are part of the country’s law enforcement and are tasked with enforcing the Islamic Republic’s strict social norms, including a dress code that requires women to wear a headscarf or hijab in public.
Iranian police said Amini’s death was an “unfortunate incident” and denied she was harmed while in custody, Iran’s semi-official Fars News agency reported Monday.
Iranian officials said they had performed an autopsy on Amini’s body. Speaking on state television on Saturday, the director of Iran’s Forensic Agency, Mehdi Forozesh, said the results would be made public after further examination by medical experts.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Greater Tehran Police Commander Hossein Rahimi said police “did everything” to keep her alive.
But explanations from the police were not accepted by protesters who took to the streets in Tehran and other cities on Monday, demanding justice and accountability.
The semi-official Fars news agency reported that protesters were “unconvinced” by the police’s justification for Amini’s death and claimed she died “under torture”.
After Amini’s funeral ceremony on Saturday, security forces fired tear gas at protesters in her hometown of Saqqez in Iran’s Kurdistan province, Fars reported, while Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said protesters were demanding answers from police. and stones were allegedly thrown. the governor’s office.
Fars also released a video showing protesters demonstrating in the Kurdistan provincial capital Sanadai late Sunday and chanting slogans against officials.
A video shared by the Free Union of Iranian Workers shows protesters in Sanadai chanting “death to the dictator”. Another video showed women taking off their hijabs and waving them in protest in Tehran.
Separately, internet monitoring service NetBlocks said on Monday that its real-time data showed an “almost complete disruption to the internet connection in Sanadai”.
