Iranian resistance has identified 56 more protesters who were shot dead by the regime’s forces in the November 2019 uprising, bringing the total number of martyrs named so far to 811 out of over 1500.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) released this information on Tuesday in the wake of the execution of protester and champion wrestler Navid Afkari, with the hope that shining new light on the recent massacre could help protect the dozens still on death row in Iran for protesting.
Many of these detainees are under severe torture, forced to confess to crimes they didn’t commit, as evidenced by an Amnesty International report from September, which says that torture is used “to punish, intimidate and humiliate detainees”, as well as interrogate them about supposed crimes far beyond the protests.
In a letter from prison Afkari wrote: “For around 50 days, I had to endure the most horrendous physical and psychological tortures. They would beat me with sticks and batons, hitting my arms, legs, abdomen, and back. They would place a plastic bag on my head and torture me until I suffocated to the very brink of death. They also poured alcohol into my nose.”
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote on Tuesday that the regime is trying to prevent the true number of deaths from being revealed because they hope that their crimes will be forgotten with time, but the MEK’s revelations once again show the scale of the protests and the regime’s crackdown.
The protests erupted after fuel prices were tripled but soon transformed into demands for regime overthrow, with thousands of people taking to the streets with slogans of “death to the dictator” and “reformist, hardliner, the game is over”, highlighting that the people see no difference between the regime’s factions.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to “do whatever they can” to stop the uprising and that ended up with people being killed in a hail of bullets, beaten with batons, and thrown into dingy dungeons with little hope of release.
The 1500 protesters killed in just a couple of weeks is reminiscent of the 1988 massacre, in which 30,000 MEK members in prison were executed for their political beliefs.
NCRI President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi has repeatedly urged the international community to take immediate action to save prisoners’ lives and set up an international commission to investigate the killings, visit prisons and meet with prisoners.
