Iran war news: Iran war horror: Iranians claim how Tehran is conducting crackdown on dissenting voices
The war with the United States and Israel has intensified authorities’ threats against anyone who speaks out except the media or activists. This pressure now appears to be expanding to intimidate exiled activists.
Intelligence agents in Tehran arrested the brother of Hossein Razzagh, a former political prisoner who fled to Europe last year, on March 15, Razzagh told the AP. “My own brother is absolutely not political and does not engage in any political activity. He does it to put me under pressure,” he said.
Razzagh said his brother Ali was taken from his home in Tehran and that night he was able to phone his wife “for a few seconds” from a detention center run by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.
His family and lawyer have not been able to contact him since. But Razzagh said the intelligence ministry told them his connection to his brother was being reviewed.
Behnam Chegini, another activist who escaped, said that her 20-year-old nephew was detained for a week on March 10. The nephew was taken from his family’s home in the city of Arak shortly after returning from Tehran, where his university was closed due to the war. He was later released on bail and a travel ban was imposed. Chegini, who now lives in France, said the detention was at least partly “because he is my nephew and they know that.”
Activist Sareh Sedighi, who escaped after the death penalty was overturned in 2021, said her mother was detained from her home in the western town of Urmia last month. “The Islamic Republic took my mother away to silence me,” he said. He added that his mother had health problems and needed a daily dose of insulin.
Mahshid Nazemi, a former political prisoner and activist who now lives in France, also said that at least one of his friends was detained and questioned whether he had contact with him.
Authorities target properties of outspoken exiles
Iran’s judiciary has begun seizing the properties of public figures who criticize the country’s rulers under an anti-espionage law approved during last year’s 12-day war with Israel that penalizes media and cultural activities deemed to support Iran’s enemies.
On March 31, a judiciary spokesman said on state television that more than 200 indictments related to confiscations had been prepared or were being broadcast.
Iranian actor Borzou Arjmand, who lives in California, learned from the news that his assets in Iran were confiscated. Arjmand was unable to return to Iran after his open support for the protests in 2022. Authorities have since blocked his bank accounts.
Arjmand supported Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah of Iran, on social media, who organized an opposition movement abroad and supported the US-Israeli attacks.
Arjmand said putting pressure on exiles was meant “to prevent the voice of the Iranian people from reaching the world.”
At least three more people living outside Iran – star football player Sardar Azmoun, musician Mohsen Yeghaneh and university professor Ali Sharifi Zarchi – are on the list of those seized, according to two semi-official news agencies in Iran. Yeghaneh and Zarchi expressed their support for anti-government protesters on social media.
Human rights groups say conditions are worsening
Iranian security and judicial officials have warned that any new anti-government protests will be met with lethal force.
State media regularly report arrests across the country, describing people as “mercenaries” or “agents” of Israel and the United States, “royalist bandits” or “traitorous elements”.
Reports claim some are sending information to “hostile networks.”
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Iran Human Rights Group, a Norway-based group, said he has tracked hundreds of detainees using his networks in the country and reports in state media since the war began on February 28. The exact number is likely much higher, he said.
Her daughter Mehraveh Khandan, who lives in Amsterdam, said that among those detained was human rights lawyer Nesrin Sotoudeh, who was taken from her home in Tehran by intelligence agents. Sotoudeh, 64, was released on bail for health reasons after being previously detained.
Because Israeli airstrikes have targeted buildings connected to the judicial system, little is known about how the hearings work. “It’s like they’re half-closed. Many judges stay at home,” said Musa Barzin, a lawyer from Dadban, a group of human rights lawyers based abroad.
Some report worsening conditions in crowded prisons. Speaking from Tehran, the wife of a political prisoner held in Iran’s Evin Prison is worried the prison could be hit like it was in last year’s war.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity for the safety of his family, Gül said, “Explosions and smoke can be heard and seen all over the city. Every time we hear a sound, we are afraid.”
Iranian opposition is trying to organize abroad
This led to new attempts to organize the highly fragmented Iranian opposition abroad.
Shortly before the war, Razzagh and others began planning an opposition conference in London, called the Iran Freedom Congress, to bring together pro-democracy groups. Razzagh represented a group of opposition figures based in Iran, including Soutoudeh and detained Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi.
He described the conference as a first step towards creating a coalition to push for a “political transition” in Iran.
For decades, Iran’s rulers have suppressed organized political opposition. Some activists in the diaspora say the war has worsened this oppression.
Nazemi said about the Iranians in his hometown, “Israel and America say, if the Islamic Republic does not kill you, let’s bomb you. They were taken hostages from both sides.”
