Protests have spread rapidly across the country since the death of Mahsa Amini
Iranian local media reported that the authorities had arrested a number of former and current football players in one of the most prominent teams in Tehran for participating in what was described as a “mixed” party on New Year’s Eve.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency did not reveal the names of the players or their number, but said some of them were in an abnormal state due to alcohol consumption.
The agency said: “Last night (Saturday) a number of current and former players were arrested in one of the most prominent football clubs in Tehran at a mixed party in Damavand.”
“Some of the players were in an abnormal state due to alcohol consumption,” the agency added.
Iranian law only allows non-Muslims to drink alcohol for religious reasons. The Iranian judiciary also considers parties where unmarried men and women mix as illegal and condemns them as an example of perversion and social corruption.
image copyright Getty Images
Iranian law allows non-Muslims to drink alcohol for religious reasons
Human rights activists condemn such raids by the Iranian authorities as an invasion of privacy.
support the protests
The Islamic Republic has been rocked by angry protests since the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini on September 16, following she was arrested for violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Iranian officials say hundreds of people have been killed in the protests and the violence that accompanies them, including members of the security forces, and thousands have been arrested.
The Iranian authorities acknowledged the death of more than 300 people during the protests, but said that this number includes a number of security forces and people loyal to the government.
According to the Iranian Human Rights Organization, as of November 29, at least 448 people have been killed by security forces, including 29 women and 60 children.
A team from the BBC was able to verify the identities of more than 75 of the dead through a lot of effort and the use of modern forensic techniques.
The results of the team’s research confirmed that many of the dead were women, and that large numbers of the dead belonged to marginalized ethnic minorities, and it was found that among the dead were children as young as seven years old.
The team also found that some people were killed as a result of their presence in the wider cycle of violence and unrest that surrounded the protests, rather than because of their direct participation in the demonstrations.
A number of current and former soccer players, as well as other athletes and prominent figures, have been detained or questioned by the authorities following expressing support for the protests.
On Sunday, state media said a member of Iran’s security forces was shot dead during protests in the city of Semirom, more than 100 days following the nationwide unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
A member of the Basij was killed
“Armed criminals killed a Basij member in the city of Semirom,” the official IRNA news agency said, referring to the paramilitary forces linked to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The “IRNA” agency said that protesters gathered late on Saturday evening in the city, which is regarding 470 km south of the capital Tehran and is located in the central province of Isfahan.
The agency added that they gathered in front of the regional administration building and other sites in the city of “Semirom”.
“Security forces were deployed to impose order in the city, and in some cases, clashes took place with numerous rioters,” the agency’s report said.
Tehran often describes protesters as troublemakers and accuses hostile foreign powers and opposition groups of fomenting the unrest.
image copyright Mohsen Shekari
A human rights activist said that Mohsen Shekari’s trial was a “sham without any legal proceedings.”
Last month, Iran executed two men, both 23, whom it accused of carrying out attacks on security forces in connection with the protests.
The authorities carried out the first death sentence once morest Mohsen Shakari on the eighth of last December. He was convicted of “enmity once morest God” following it emerged that he had attacked a member of the “Basij” with a machete in the capital, Tehran.
As for the second death sentence, it was carried out once morest Majid Reza Rahnward on December 12, following a court convicted him of “enmity to God” for stabbing to death two members of the Basij forces.
The judiciary also said that nine other people had been sentenced to death. Human rights activists said this week that dozens of protesters also face charges that might carry the death penalty.
Human rights groups have warned that protesters are being sentenced to death following show trials and confessions extracted under duress without a fair trial.
