The interior of a mosque set on fire during the protests in Iran Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
Iranian state television announced on Wednesday that 3,117 people were killed during the large protest movement that began on December 28 and was bloody repressed by the authorities, AFP and Reuters report, quoted by Agerpres.
Among those killed, 2,427 are considered “martyrs” in the Islamic sense of the term, as they were “innocent” victims, the public television station added, citing a statement from the Iranian Foundation for Ex-Combatants and Martyrs.
According to the non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), which is based in Norway, at least 3,428 demonstrators were killed, but the final toll could exceed 20,000 dead.
Conflicting assessments of the number of victims
Tehran's official toll is lower than that announced on Sunday even by a regime official who said at least 5,000 people had been killed in Iran's protests, including about 500 members of the security forces, saying these were verified figures and blaming “terrorists and armed rioters” for killing “innocent Iranians,” according to Reuters.
“A number of actions have been identified as Mohareb, which are among the most severe Islamic punishments,” Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a news conference.
Mohareb, an Islamic legal term meaning to wage war against God, is punishable by death under Iranian law.
Nationwide protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and spread over two weeks, morphing into large-scale demonstrations calling for the end of the country's religious leadership, resulting in the bloodiest unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if protesters continue to be killed in the streets or executed. In a social media post on Friday, he thanked Tehran's leaders, saying they had canceled the scheduled mass executions.
