Iran protests: state TV hacked during Khamenei speech
The anger unleashed in the wake of Mahsa Amini's death continues to sweep Iran. Amid massive protests, a hacker group called Edalat-e Ali (Justice of Ali) disrupted a live speech by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Iranian state television.
The group displayed an image of the Ayatollah in flames and with a telescopic sight pointed at him while the famous slogan "woman, life, freedom" was heard. Underneath, a picture of Amini and three other girls killed during the protests, including 16-year-old Nika Shakarmi, who was abducted by morality police during a demonstration in Tehran. Shakarmi was missing for 10 days, until her family found her body in the morgue of a detention centre in the capital.
"The blood of our youth is in your hands", "join us and rise up", said the group, which in early 2022 also hacked the website of government television and radio. "Khamenei is afraid, the regime's foundations are shaking," it said at the time. Since the protests began, numerous computer groups have leaked official documents and disabled surveillance cameras, as Iran International recalls.
Meanwhile, Iranian security forces intensify their crackdown on protesters as protests intensify and continue to spread across the country. At least 185 people, including 19 children, have been killed during the massive demonstrations that began last September following the death of the young Kurdish woman at the hands of morality police for not wearing the Islamic headscarf properly, according to Iran Human Rights. However, the high number of seriously injured people will cause a marked increase in the total number of those killed.
The Norwegian-based NGO notes that Sistan and Baluchestan province has recorded the highest number of deaths. Iran Human Rights has described the killings in the regional capital, Zahedan, as "crimes against humanity". The organisation calls on the international community to "investigate" the events and "prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from committing further crimes".
According to EFE, violent clashes between security forces and protesters have also been reported in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province, where Amini is from. In both Sanandaj and Saquez, the Iranian authorities shot at citizens and used tear gas, according to the NGO Hengaw. In the Kurdish region, strike days have also been declared with shops closed.
Meanwhile, in cities such as Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Shiraz, Kerman, Mashhad, Tabriz and Rasht, protests and chants against the regime have continued. In the capital, for example, during a visit by President Ebrahim Raisi to Alzahra University - a women-only educational institution - students booed him to scorn and shouted "get lost".
During his speech at the university, the Iranian leader spoke about the protests, assuring that "professors and students were awake and would not allow the enemy's false dreams to come true".
Regarding the protesters and the slogans against Raisi, the educational institution said the protests were made up of only "about 15 students instigated by some foreign factors". Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the US and Israel for being behind the mass protests.
The Iranian authorities also continue to maintain that Amini died due to a previous illness and not from police beatings, as his own family and protesters claim.