Protests In Iran: Hundreds Of Protesters Involved In CHARGes, Four People Endangered With Death Sentences

Protests against Mahsa Amini's death in Iran. (Wikimedia Commons/Darafsh)

JAKARTA - More than 300 protesters were charged on Monday for participating in protests led by Iranian women, with four possible deaths, the country's courts said.

Protests against Iran's regime turned violent over the weekend at the Sharif University of Technology Tehran, as a group of female students demonstrating clashed with rival protesters.

The violence comes amid weeks of anti-government protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in a moral police custody.

The indictment has been issued to 315 people for "assembled and colluding with the aim of acting against state security", "propaganda against the system" and "disturbing public order", court news website Mizan Online quoted prosecutor Tehran Ali Salehi as saying, reported by The National News Oct. 25.

Salei further said, "the charges were also imposed on four rioters on charges of Moharebeh or the war against God", charges that could carry the death penalty.

The rioters were accused of "using weapons to terrorize the public and the people, injuring security officers, burning and destroying public and government property, with the intention of disrupting state security and confronting the holy system of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.

The development comes as Iran's 'policy police' have been recorded beating protesters and firing rifles into crowds.

Meanwhile, human rights groups say more than 200 people have died since protests began, as security forces suppressed the largest anti-government movement since 2019, when more than 200 people were killed in what is now referred to as Vulnerable November.

Separately, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Majid Mirahmadi said on Saturday the protests at the university and elsewhere had subsided.

"There are various meetings at several universities, which are decreasing every day, and riots are going through their last days," Mirahmadi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.