Fri 27 December 2019:
Iranian protesters chanted political slogans under the eye of security forces during a memorial on Thursday for a man killed in demonstrations last month, videos on social media showed.
The images, which could not be verified by Reuters, showed one woman shouting “Death to the dictator” as people around her ran in the cemetery in the city of Karaj. Other videos showed a helicopter flying nearby and security forces around the cemetery.
Dec. 27- 8:30am local time, Karaj, #Iran
Security forces on motorcycles wait near a bank in Karaj in fear of #IranProtests. All of these extreme security measures show just how frightened and fragile the regime is. pic.twitter.com/rECLBLuOIN— Iran News Wire (@IranNW) December 27, 2019
Dec 26 – Karaj, #Iran
Security forces dragging a young woman who joined others at a local cemetery to merely hold a ceremony in memory of civilians killed by the regime during the November uprising.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/RLA8kdGd6k— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) December 26, 2019
Dec 26 – Behbahan, SW #Iran
Large crowd commemorating Farzad Ansari-far and other civilians killed by the regime’s security forces during the November uprising.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/nMcWCVz4ax— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) December 26, 2019
Dec 26 – Yazdanshahr, central #Iran
Ceremony in memory of 17-year old Sasan Eidivand, a young man shot by security forces during the Nov uprising. Authorities were unable to prevent these gatherings despite dispatching many security units.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/m6g1C2JYW8— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) December 26, 2019
Social media postings said some protesters were arrested at the ceremony for 27-year-old Pouya Bakhtiari but Reuters could not confirm that. Ceremonies also took place in a handful of other cities to honor those killed in recent protests, videos showed.
Demonstrations against a hike in fuel prices turned political last month, sparking the bloodiest crackdown in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic.
About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest, three Iranian interior ministry officials told Reuters, though international rights groups put the figure much lower and
Iran called the report “fake news.”
Bakhtiari’s parents were arrested on Monday after refusing to call off the ceremony at the cemetery where he was buried, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a New York-based advocacy group. Bakhtiari died of a bullet wound to the head in Karaj on November 16, it said.
In a report on Tuesday, the semi-official Mehr news agency noted that Bakhtiari had been “killed in a suspicious way”.
Iranian authorities had been on high alert for potential protests on Thursday and restricted mobile internet access in several provinces, an Iranian news agency reported on Wednesday.
Police chief Hossein Rahimi said there were no security incidents in Tehran on Thursday, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
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