5 killed in Iran protests against death of woman arrested by police

Five people were killed in Iran yesterday during protests in the Kurdish region over the death of a young woman in police custody, a Kurdish rights organisation said, as unrest continued over the incident for a third consecutive day.

Mahsa Amini, 22, died after falling into a coma following her arrest by the morality police in Tehran last week.

Following her death, human rights group Hengaw said that two men were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters in the Kurdish city of Saqqez, Amini’s hometown. It added that two other men were killed in the town of Diwandra in “direct fire” from the security forces, and a fifth was killed in Dehklan, also in the Kurdish region.

There was no official confirmation of the deaths. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

State television said that a number of protesters had been arrested but denied “some allegations on social media that there had been deaths,” and showed footage of two injured young men denying reports of their death. However, their names were different from the two names published by Hengaw.

The official IRNA news agency said that the police dispersed “limited” protests that took place in a number of cities in seven provinces.

Police said Amini fell ill while she was waiting with the others at the ethics police station to which she was transferred. However, her father said that his daughter did not suffer from health problems and that bruises were visible on her foot, blaming the police for her death.

The Hengaw organisation said 75 people were injured yesterday.

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