Prime Iran safety physique says 200 folks have died in anti-government protestsYesterday

President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday hailed Iran’s Islamic Republic as a guarantor of rights and freedoms, defending the the ruling system amid a crackdown on anti-government protests that the United Nations says has price greater than 300 lives.

A prime state safety physique in the meantime stated that 200 folks, together with members of the safety forces, had misplaced their lives within the unrest, a determine considerably decrease than that given by the world physique and rights teams.

The protests, of their third month, had been ignited by the dying of 22-year-old Kurdish lady Mahsa Amini within the custody of morality police imposing strict necessary hijab guidelines.

The demonstrations have changed into a well-liked revolt by livid Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of many boldest challenges to the clerical management for the reason that 1979 revolution.

Unfazed by the brutal crackdown, protesters have raised slogans in opposition to Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and repeatedly demanded an finish to the Islamic authorities.

The authorities blame the revolt on international enemies, together with the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“Iran has probably the most progressive structure on this planet” as a result of it marries “beliefs with democracy,” Raisi stated in a speech to parliamentarians, quoting an unidentified African lawyer he stated he met a number of years in the past.

“The structure ensures the (existence) of the Islamic system,” he stated, including that it additionally “ensures basic rights and bonafide freedoms.”

The judiciary’s Mizan information company quoted the inside ministry’s state safety council as saying 200 folks misplaced their lives within the latest “riots”.

Amirali Hajizadeh, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Monday that 300 folks, together with safety power members, had been killed within the latest unrest.

Javaid Rehman, a U.N.-appointed unbiased professional on Iran, stated on Tuesday that greater than 300 folks had been killed within the protests, together with greater than 40 youngsters.

Rights group HRANA stated that as of Friday 469 protesters had been killed, together with 64 minors. It stated 61 authorities safety forces had additionally been killed. As many as 18,210 protesters are believed to have been arrested.

A distinguished Baluch Sunni Muslim cleric, Molavi Abdolhamid, has known as for an finish to the repression of protests by means of arrests and killings, and a referendum on altering Iran’s authorities system.

“The folks’s protest has proven that the insurance policies of the final 43 years have reached a lifeless finish,” he stated in late November.