Videos shared on social media appear to show the house of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on fire, with activists saying that it was torched by protesters – a claim rejected by state media.
Reuters and AFP both said on Friday that they had verified the locations of video clips showing the home of the late leader ablaze, with crowds of anti-government protesters marching past, in Khomein city, Markazi province.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, however, denied that Khomeini’s house had been set alight, saying that a small number of people had gathered outside the house.
“The report is a lie,” said the Tasnim news agency, adding, “The doors of the house of the late founder of the great revolution are open to the public.”
News agencies could not independently verify the dates when the videos were filmed. Activist network 1500Tasvir said the incident occurred on Thursday.
The house of the late leader was turned into a museum after his death in 1989.
The videos appeared as nationwide protests swept across cities in Iran after the death in mid-September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died in the custody of the morality police after she had been detained for not adhering to the country’s dress code for women.
This week, there was a renewed wave of demonstrations to mark the anniversary of a previous round of deadly protests in 2019, when hundreds of people were killed as they took to the street following a fuel price increase.
Numerous cities across the country saw chaotic scenes, with the deadliest incident taking place on Wednesday night in the southwestern city of Izeh, in Khuzestan province, when at least seven people died – including two boys aged nine and 13.
Anti-government Iranians have blamed authorities for the incidents, while Iranian authorities have said two “terrorists” on a motorcycle opened fire on a crowd using an assault rifle.
On Tuesday, at least three protesters were killed in protests that erupted in three separate cities, according to foreign-based human rights organisations.
So far at least five people have been sentenced to death in cases linked with the demonstrations, according to the Iranian judiciary.
Foreign-based human rights organisations have estimated that nearly 400 people have been killed since the start of the protests, but Iranian authorities have not released official tallies yet.
Angry funerals sparknew protests in Iran
Iran's clerical leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is facing its biggest challenge since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in two months of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
The authorities have responded with a crackdown that a human rights group says has left 342 people dead, half a dozen already sentenced to death and thousands more arrested.
The turbulence comes with intense attention on the response of Iran's team at the football World Cup in Qatar, which is due to play its first match against England on Monday.
Scores flocked to the southwestern city of Izeh for the funeral of Kian Pirfalak, aged nine, according to pictures published by Iran's ISNA news agency.
His mother told the funeral ceremony that Kian was shot on Wednesday by the security forces although Iranian officials have insisted he was killed in a "terrorist" attack.
"Hear it from me myself on how the shooting happened, so they can't say it was by terrorists, because they're lying," his mother told the funeral according to a video posted by the 1500tasvir monitor.
"Maybe they thought we wanted to shoot or something and they peppered the car with bullets... Plainclothes forces shot my child. That is it."
Ridiculing the official version of events, the protesters chanted: "Basij, Sepah -- you are our ISIS!" according to a video posted by Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).
The Basij is a pro-government paramilitary force and Sepah is another name for Iran's feared Revolutionary Guards. ISIS is an alternative name for the extremist Islamic State (IS) group.
Opposition media based outside Iran said that another minor, Sepehr Maghsoudi, 14, was also shot dead in similar circumstances in Izeh on Wednesday. Funerals have repeatedly become flashpoints for protests.
State television said seven people had been buried, including a nine-year-old boy, adding they had been killed by "terrorists" on motorbikes.
"Kian Pirfalak, nine, and Sepehr Maghsoudi, 14, are among at least 56 kids killed by Iranian forces working to crush Iran's 2022 revolution," said Hadi Ghaemi, director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Protesters set on fire the ancestral home of the Islamic republic's late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the western town of Khomein, according to images posted on social media, verified by AFP.
But Iran's Tasnim news agency later denied there had been a fire, saying the "door of the historic house is open to visitors".
Khomeini is said to have been born at the house in Khomein -- from where his surname derives -- at the turn of the century. The house was later turned into a museum commemorating him.
The nationwide protests -- which have cut across ethnicities and social classes -- were initially fuelled by anger over the obligatory headscarf for women imposed by Khomeini but have turned into a movement calling for an end to the Islamic republic itself.
According to IHR, at least 342 people including 43 children and 26 women have been killed by security forces in the crackdown on the protests.
The official IRNA news agency said meanwhile two members of the security forces had been killed in Bukan in western Iran on Thursday while the Tasnim agency said a member of the Revolutionary Guards was killed in Sahne in Kermanshah province on Friday.
IHR's figures include 123 people killed in Sistan- Baluchistan province where the protests had a distinct initial spark but have fed into the nationwide anger.
Mainly Sunni Sistan-Baluchistan is Iran's poorest region whose ethnic Baluch inhabitants feel discriminated against by the Tehran Shiite elite.
New protests took place in the main city of Zahedan, where rights groups say dozens were killed by security forces on September 30, with people removing Islamic republic flags from buildings, IHR said.
In the port city of Chabahar, people also tore down a billboard of Khomeini, it added.
Images posted on social media showed security forces seemingly shooting at protesters in the town of Iranshahr in the province.
Meanwhile in Doha, Iran captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh insisted the side was concentrating on football and declined to be drawn on how it would mark goals.
"Every single player has a different celebration and you ask about national anthem and that's something that also has to be decided in the team which we already talked about," he said.
Fact check: Has Iran sentenced 15,000 protesters to death?
Reports that the Iranian state has sentenced approximately 15,000 people to death for participating in the now two months of protests in the country have circulated widely on social media and in news.
First reported by Newsweek, they were so widespread that even Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, tweeted about the claim, saying: “Canada denounces the Iranian regime’s barbaric decision to impose the death penalty on nearly 15,000 protesters.”
The protesters in question have been on the streets nearly every day since the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police in Tehran for allegedly not complying with Iran’s dress code for women.
But Trudeau later deleted the tweet, and Newsweek corrected its story.
Let’s take a closer look:
Is the 15,000 figure real?
- While thousands have been arrested in Iran and some have been sentenced to death, the numbers are nowhere near the 15,000 reported.
- The 15,000 figure is the number of people believed to have been arrested, according to overseas-based human rights and media organisations. The same sources have reported that more than 350 protesters have been killed.
Where did the 15,000 executions story come from?
- The news of the executions appears to have stemmed from a statement signed by 227 of Iran’s 290 parliamentarians that said people engaging in “moharebeh” (waging war against God) should be dealt with “decisively” with a response that would “teach an example”.
- Along with “corruption on Earth”, moharebeh is among the charges used by the Iranian judiciary that can carry the death penalty, hence the apparent misreporting that led to the claims that 15,000 people had been sentenced to death.
- The statement was criticised online, and some lawmakers tried to clarify their position by saying that they did not mean that all protesters should be executed.
- Days later, a document began circulating online that purportedly showed the names of 227 lawmakers on a letter that called on the judiciary to treat all those arrested in the protests as people engaging in moharebeh.
- However, the letter appears to be fake as the list of lawmakers is old and includes former members of parliament. For instance, Eshan Khandoozi, listed in the letter, has been President Ebrahim Raisi’s economy minister since August 2021. The Iranian judiciary also rejected the authenticity of the letter.
How many people have been sentenced to death?
- The fact that the exaggerated reports have been debunked does not mean that no execution sentences have been handed out. On Sunday, the Iranian judiciary announced that the first death sentence has been handed down to an unnamed “rioter” who was charged with moharebeh, “corruption on Earth” and “setting fire to a government centre, disturbing public order and collusion for committing crimes against national security”.
- The judiciary also announced on Wednesday that four more individuals have received death sentence in connection with the protests.
- Two individuals were sentenced for “using a knife in the street to cause fear and terror for the people“ in addition to attacking others with the knife and arson. Another is accused of running over and killing a police officer with a car, while a fourth is accused of playing the role of a “leader“ in street unrest and blocking the streets.
- Several other people, also unnamed, have received between five to 10 years in prison for national security-related charges.
- The judiciary has said the rulings, which were issued in Tehran, are preliminary and will need to be approved by an appeals court to become final – after which details can be made public.
- Judiciary officials have said more than 1,000 indictments have been issued against “rioters” in Tehran, with many more in other parts of the country.
What’s the latest on the protests?
- Protests have continued to spread across the country, with videos coming out daily despite severe internet restrictions that have been imposed since the start.
- Protests and strikes were held on Tuesday and Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the country’s nationwide 2019 protests.
- Iranian authorities have refrained from releasing official tallies of how many people have been killed, injured or arrested during the protests. But they have said more than 40 members of the security forces have been killed.
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