Iranian security forces must refrain from using excessive and unnecessary force in the policing of protests, Amnesty International urged after police in riot gear dispersed a demonstration in the Kurdish-populated city of Mahabad, West Azerbaijan province, on 7 May.
At least 25 people were injured in the ensuing clashes between the people and police last night.
There are fears of a renewed police crackdown amid reports of arrests and after further demonstrations were called, Amnesty said.
A large group of protesters gathered outside Mahabad’s Tara Hotel yesterday evening to express their anger after a 25-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Farinaz Khosravani, fell to her death from the hotel’s fourth story several days earlier.
At some point yesterday evening, the demonstration outside the hotel erupted into violence.
According to Kurdish rights activists outside Iran, the violence started after riot police resorted to batons, tear gas and possibly live ammunition to disperse the crowd, injuring multiple people. The activists told Amnesty International that Ministry of Intelligence officials have since arrested at least 20 people, and some wounded protesters have avoided going to hospital due to fears of being arrested.
“Instead of resorting to intimidation and excessive force, the authorities must launch a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of the young woman in Mahabad as well as the allegations about the use of excessive force in the policing of protests that her death sparked”, said Said Boumedouha, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa.
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