Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested Mashallah Karami, the father of Mohammad Mehdi Karami, who was arrested and then executed for his participation in the nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody last September.
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reported that Karami was detained on August 22 during a raid by security forces at his residence.
Sources close to the Karami family told Radio Farda that during the raid, not only were family members taken into custody, but all of their electronic devices, including laptops and mobile phones, were confiscated.
While Mohammad Mehdi Karami’s mother and brother were briefly detained and subsequently released, the father remains in detention, the sources said.
Mohammad Mehdi Karami was sentenced to death in early December. Prosecutors accused him of being involved in the death of a member of the Basij paramilitary force during an anti-government demonstration.
Mohammad Hosseini was also sentenced to death in the case and executed in January.
Karami and Hosseini had denied the charges against them and said they had been tortured in prison.
Iranian officials have repeatedly expressed concerns in recent weeks about the possibility of protests escalating as the September 16 anniversary of Amini’s death approaches.
In Tehran and other Iranian cities, several civil activists and demonstrators with a history of protesting have also been arrested or summoned in recent days to meet with judicial authorities.
Iranian security services, meanwhile, have initiated a series of “telephone summons” targeting students after Mostafa Rastegari, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top representative for higher education, warned of the potential for fresh public protests originating from academic institutions and hinted that measures to deter protests were needed.
At least 500 people have been killed since the protests broke out after Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who was arrested while visiting Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law, died.
The protests began as a rebuke against the brutal enforcement of the mandatory head-scarf legislation but soon snowballed into one of the most sustained demonstrations against Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Officials have blamed the West for inciting the protests and vowed to crack down even harder on the demonstrations.
Several thousand people have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.
Source » rferl