Iranian authorities have accused two Frenchmen and one Belgian of spying and working against the country’s national security, spokesman for the Iranian Prosecutor’s Office Masud Shtayasi said Tuesday in statements collected by Iran’s ISNA news agency. The identity of the defendants and the date and place of their arrest were not disclosed. Since the death in police custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by vice squads three months ago for changing the mandatory headscarf, the Islamic Republic has accused foreign governments of fomenting unrest that is shaking the country in connection Along with the demonstrations, the Supreme Court has upheld two death sentences imposed on participants in the mobilizations and overturned two other execution sentences, according to the Tasnim Agency.
The Iranian regime is detaining dozens of citizens of the European Union and other Western countries, including two Spaniards: Santiago Sánchez, 41, from Madrid, arrested October 2, and Ana Baneira, 24, from Galicia, whose arrest was announced on November 10 .
Last October, the New York-based organization Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) estimated that at least 20 Westerners are detained in the country, 14 of whom have dual citizenship, which is why Tehran does not recognize their status as foreigners, allowing them to to provide consular assistance? On September 30, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and National Security reported the arrest of nine other Europeans.
The CHRI list does not include the 40 foreigners whose arrests were announced by the spokesman for the Iranian judiciary on November 22, without specifying their nationality. Known cases of EU citizens concern France (9), Sweden (5), Germany (4), Austria (2), Spain (2), Belgium (2), the Netherlands (1) and Poland (1). There are also Americans, Canadians, British and Swiss.
European diplomatic sources have no doubt that the allegations against the detained Europeans are almost always false and that they are “hostages that Tehran is using to urge it to stop imposing sanctions”; because of human rights violations or Iran’s delivery of drones that Russia uses to attack Ukraine.
Since the protests began, which analysts see as one of the greatest challenges, if not the greatest, in the history of the Islamic Republic founded by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, Tehran has arrested more Westerners and, above all, repressed its population with enormous severity while they West accuse the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia of orchestrating protests in which women and young people play leading roles.
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Amnesty International has warned that the Iranian authorities have already sought the death penalty for at least 26 people during what the organization has described as “sham trials to intimidate participants in the popular uprising”. Mohsen Shekari and Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, and Mohammad Qabadlo, 22, were executed in December. According to Amnesty, all those sentenced to death have been denied the right to a proper defense and access to lawyers of their choice. Human rights groups insist that the accused have to resort to public defenders who even support the prosecutor’s accusatory theories.
According to the Iranian exile human rights organization HRANA, as of December 26, 507 demonstrators, including 69 minors, were killed in the protests. This organization estimates that more than 18,500 have been arrested.
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