I didn’t get around to this tidbit when it came up after the mass “youth” protests on Bastille Day. But since the IRG will undoubtedly be brutalizing protesters during Wednesday’s inauguration – itself a fait accompli now that Khamenei’s given his seal of approval – might as well take care of it now:
Iran on Thursday summoned the French ambassador to Tehran to protest what it alleged was police brutality against demonstrators in France, ahead of the 14 July Bastille Day celebrations, the official IRNA news agency reports. The deputy director for Western Europe at Iran’s Foreign Ministry told the French ambassador, Bernard Poletti: “The Islamic Republic condemns the widespread suppression of those who protest against President [Nicolas] Sarkozy’s policies [and] the unacceptable human rights situation in France, which it always claims to defend.” According to French police, 13 police officers were wounded and 317 cars were burned in street violence on Tuesday night, the eve of the national holiday, reports AFP.
The last credible count of detained or murdered Iranian protesters was well into the thousands. That number will only climb now that security forces have begun dumping the Iranian soldier ‘killed in custody’ broken bodies of murdered prisoners on families:
A young Iranian soldier, arrested late last week for allegedly stealing weapons for opposition groups, was killed in custody and his body returned to his family on Saturday, sources in Teheran said. The sources said the bodies of several dissidents, arrested in the course of anti-regime protests in Iran in recent weeks and evidently killed in detention, had also been returned to their families in the past few days.
Several of the bodies bore signs of beatings, the sources said. “In Mashhad, I know of three young soldiers who were arrested two days ago,” one source said. On Saturday, “one of their bodies was turned over to family members and loved ones. When I called his family to give my condolences, his sister said he looked like he had been beaten to death when her father received the body.”
Can you believe they specifically called out the ambassador for France’s “unacceptable human rights situation?” Bold.
References:
* Iran summons French ambassador over Bastille Day protests [IRNA]
* Hey, Anyone Up For More Rioting In France? [MR]
* Clenched By Khamenei, In An Official Endorsement Of Ahmadinejad’s Rigged Win [Is Iran's Fist Still Clenched?]
* Iranian soldier ‘killed in custody’ [JPost]
Previously:
* The “No Spyware For Dictators” Anti-Nokia, Anti-Iran Protest In Downtown LA [Gallery]
* Russia To Obama: No, Of Course We’re Not Going To Help Out On Iran
* Figures: Iranian Prison Guards Rape Female Prisoners Before Execution “Lest They Go To Paradise”
