State television showed a dense crowd of Iranians attend funerals for over 100 security force members in Tehran, who were killed in ongoing mass protests. On the side of the protesters, who are demonstrating against Iran’s repressive regime, the death toll is estimated to be in the thousands.
A funeral ceremony began in Tehran on Wednesday for over 100 members of the security forces and other “martyrs” killed in the wave of protests that has rocked the Islamic republic, state television said. The ceremony attended by thousands of people waving flags of the Islamic republic began with prayers being read out for the dead outside Tehran University, according to the images.
Rights groups say thousands of people are likely to have been killed in a crackdown by security forces on protests. But the authorities blame “rioters” who they say killed dozens of members of the security forces as well as innocent bystanders described as “martyrs”.
Rights groups fear use of capital punishment
Iran’s judiciary chief vowed fast-track trials for suspects arrested over a wave of protests which the authorities have dismissed as “riots”, state television said Wednesday.
“If a person burned someone, beheaded someone and set them on fire then we must do our work quickly,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on a visit to a prison holding protest detainees, in comments broadcast by state television. Iranian news agencies also quoted him as saying the trials should be held “in public” and said he had spent five hours in a prison in Tehran to examine the cases.
Rights groups say thousands have been arrested and fear the judiciary will make extensive use of capital punishment.
The nationwide shutdown of the internet by authorities in Iran, which activists fear is aimed at masking the true scale of a crackdown on protests, has now lasted over 132 hours, a monitor said Wednesday. “Metrics show #Iran remains offline as the country wakes to another day of digital darkness,” said Netblocks in a post on X.
Source: Africanews
