Iran arrested 7000 in dissidents in 2018

Iranian authorities arrested more than 7,000 dissidents last year in a sweeping crackdown that led to hundreds being jailed or flogged, at least 26 protesters were killed, and nine people died in custody amid suspicious circumstances, according to Amnesty International.

Those swept up by the crackdown included protesters, students, lawyers, journalists, environmental and women's rights activists, and trade unionists.

Iranian authorities beat unarmed protesters and used live ammunition, teargas, and water cannon throughout the year – particularly in January, July, and August – with thousands arbitrarily arrested and detained, new figures assert.

“2018 will go down in history as a year of shame for Iran,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East research and advocacy director. “The staggering scale of arrests, imprisonments and flogging sentences reveal the extreme lengths the authorities have gone to in order to suppress peaceful dissent.

The crackdown was a response to unrest over poverty, corruption and the lack of political and social freedoms.

At least 112 women human rights defenders were arrested or remained in detention in Iran last year following sustained protests against compulsory veiling. Women silently waved their headscarves on sticks in public, provoking a violent response and a number of “grossly unfair” trials that led to some being jailed.

Throughout the year, 11 lawyers, 50 media workers, and 91 students were also detained arbitrarily, with at least 20 media workers sentenced to long jail sentences or flogging after unfair trials, according to Amnesty.

Amid a deepening economic crisis in the Middle East country that triggered worker-led protests that were brutally suppressed, Amnesty said Iran also intensified its discriminatory crackdown against religious and ethnic minorities, limiting their access to education, employment, and other services.

At least 63 environmental activists and researchers were reportedly arrested in 2018. They stand accused, without evidence, of collecting classified information about Iran’s strategic areas under the pretext of carrying out environmental and scientific projects. At least five were charged with “corruption on earth”, a crime punishable by death.