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Radiofarda – Political activists in Iran say the Islamic Republic Judiciary has summoned many signatories of a statement condemning the harsh government reaction against protests last month.
Immediately after the events, 77 pro-reform figures issued a statement, deploring the violent and lethal response against the protesters.
A member of the pro-reform Participation Front political party, Mehdi Mahmoudian, twitted on December 6 that during the past week, nearly seventeen signatories to the statement have been summoned to court, pending indictment.
Mahmoudian, who was jailed for five years after the uprising against the official outcome of the presidential election in 2009, said in his tweet, “They (the authorities) say that people have the right to voice their protest, but shower the protesters with a plethora of accusations from the state tribunes.”
In their statement, the reformists had called for the prosecution of those who opened fire on protesters.
“Firing randomly at unarmed ordinary citizens with a gun purchased by public money and intended for defending people—is absolutely unjustifiable,” Mahmoudian said in his tweet, adding a copy of the indictment issued against him.
The indictment says that Mahmoudian should appear before a judge on December 10; otherwise, he would be arrested.
The reformist statement triggered a barrage of criticism from their rival camp, the conservative allies of the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“We emphatically demand the authorities and decision-makers of the country to respect the people’s right, specifically their right to peaceful protests and free speech, and avoid violence”, the statement has says, adding, “Those who ordered shooting at the people, alongside with those who carried out the order, should be prosecuted, and the outcome immediately announced publicly.”
According to Amnesty International, the Islamic republic killed at least 208 people during the four-day protests in more than 100 cities across Iran. However, in a press briefing on December 5, the U.S. State Department Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook said in Washington D.C. that the Islamic Republic security forces might have killed as many as 1,000 if not more demonstrators during the mid-November deadly suppression of anti-regime protests.
The suppression has been described as the “deadliest” in the four-decade history of the clergy-dominated Iran.
