BFF-14 Amnesty revises up Iran protest crackdown toll to 304

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Amnesty revises up Iran protest crackdown toll to 304

LONDON, United Kingdom, Dec 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least 304 people were
killed in Iran during a three-day crackdown against protests across the
country in November, according to a new Amnesty International toll published
Monday.

The rights group had earlier estimated 208 deaths, including two youths
aged 15 and 17. Iran has dismissed such figures as “utter lies”.

Amnesty said it collected “harrowing testimony” suggesting that after
authorities “massacred” protesters, they orchestrated a “wide-scale
clampdown” to cover up the deaths.

“Iran’s authorities are carrying out a vicious crackdown following the
outbreak of nationwide protests on 15 November,” the London-based rights
watchdog said in a statement.

“Thousands of protesters as well as journalists, human rights defenders and
students” were arrested, Amnesty said, “to stop them from speaking out about
Iran’s ruthless repression”.

The nationwide demonstrations were triggered by a shock fuel price hike.

Authorities restored order within days, but so far have confirmed just five
deaths, including four members of the security forces killed by “rioters”.

An official death-toll based on figures from the national forensic
institute is awaited.

“Independent sources” told Amnesty that a month after the unrest, “security
forces are still carrying out raids across the country to arrest people in
their homes and places of work.”

Adolescents as young as 15 have been “detained alongside adults”, Amnesty
said.

With dozens held in “incommunicado detention” and others in “conditions
amounting to enforced disappearance”, some detention centres face “severe
overcrowding”, Amnesty claimed.

The organisation called on Tehran to “urgently and unconditionally release
all those who have been arbitrarily detained”.

It called on the international community to apply urgent pressure, without
which “thousands will remain at risk of torture and other ill-treatment”.

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1043 hrs