Four hundred people in Tehran have received jail sentences of up to 10 years, arrested in relation to nationwide protests that erupted after the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Jîna Masha Amini on 16 September in the custody of the morality police, reported The Guardian.
According to the judiciary chief of the Tehran Province, Ali Alghasi-Mehr, 160 of the 400 sentences were for between five and 10 years in prison. Alghasi-Mehr also said that the sentences had been given to “rioters”, a name officials gave to demonstrators who defy the Islamic Republic.
The total number of arrests in the country is likely much higher, as Tehran is just one of 31 provinces in Iran. UN human rights experts have estimated that more than 14,000 arrests have been made since the uprising began.
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was arrested by Iran’s notorious morality police on 13 September for an alleged breach of the country’s strict mandatory dress code for women. Three days later she died in hospital from alleged police brutality.
The first protester to be executed in relation to the protests was 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari, on 9 December.
According to Iranian daily news outlet Etemad, a further 24 people are facing the death sentence, charged with “waging war against God” after Shekari’s execution.
The Iranian authorities have been cracking down hard on the protests, with the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights saying more than 300 people have been killed, including at least 40 children.
