DUBAI, Jan 6 (Portal) – A senior Iranian Sunni cleric on Friday denounced as un-Islamic Iran’s alleged use of forced confessions to convict detained protesters amid weekly demonstrations in the south-east of the county.
Meanwhile, the authorities’ crackdown continued following nationwide protests with arrests including that of a celebrity chef and a prominent journalist.
Anti-government demonstrations took place on Friday in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan as part of protests following the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman detained by vice squads on September 16 for disobeying a strict dress code for women.
“If someone doesn’t accept the charges, they torture them into accepting them. Coerced confessions and beating of the accused have no place in Sharia (Islamic law) and our country’s constitution,” Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi said in a Friday prayer sermon. according to its website.
Ismaeelzahi is based in Zahedan, the capital of impoverished Sistan-Balochistan province, home to Iran’s Baloch minority. The authorities have reportedly put pressure on him by banning him from traveling abroad and restricting his travel and contacts within Iran.
Human rights groups say convictions of dissidents in Iranian courts are often based on coerced confessions. Iran denies that.
Ismaeelzahi, a strong dissenting Sunni voice in the Shia-ruled Islamic Republic, also denounced mass arrests in Zahedan after state media said security forces had arrested more than 100 “thugs and armed robbers” there in recent days.
After the sermon, protesters marched in Zahedan chanting “Death to the Islamic Republic,” according to videos posted on social media. Portal could not immediately verify the footage.
Separately, chef and influencer Navab Ebrahimi was arrested in the capital Tehran and taken to Evin prison, where many political prisoners are being held, human rights group HRANA said.
There was no immediate word from the judiciary about the reported arrest of Ebrahimi, who had 2.7 million followers on Instagram. His account was unavailable on Friday.
Posts on social media said his arrest may have been linked to a video showing him preparing Persian chops, which may have been interpreted as a mockery amid state-sponsored events marking the third anniversary of the assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US drone attack.
Mehdi Beik, who headed the political desk at the moderate Etemad newspaper, was arrested by security officials on Thursday, his wife said on Twitter.
Officials have yet to announce the reasons for the arrest of Beik, who was interviewing relatives of detained protesters.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said on Twitter that as of January 5 it had documented the names of at least 84 journalists who had been arrested in Iran amid the ongoing protests, 36 of whom had been released on bail.
Reporting by Dubai Newsroom Editor by Raissa Kasolowsky
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