Five years after Iran’s November 2019 protests, in which security forces killed 1,500 civilians, the Iranian regime’s judiciary convicted 89 residents of the city of Likak, located in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, for participating in these protests.
According to the HRANA website, these 89 individuals, who were arrested during the November 2019 protests and later released on bail, were convicted nearly five years later in a joint case by the First Branch of the Likak Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office, and their case has been sent to court.
The November 2019 protests in Iran initially erupted in response to a sudden and steep increase in fuel prices, but they quickly took on an anti-regime nature, with protest gatherings against the Iranian regime spreading across 29 provinces and hundreds of cities within a week.
The First Branch of the Likak Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office, presided over by Mehrdad Soltani, convicted these 89 citizens on charges including “disturbing public order and peace, destruction, and arson of public and government property.”
In the months following the November 2019 massacre, Amnesty International reported that the impoverished neighborhoods on the outskirts of Tehran had the highest death tolls with 163 killed, followed by Khuzestan Province with 57 killed, and Kermanshah Province with 30 killed.
Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the then Minister of Interior in Hassan Rouhani’s government, confirmed at that time the death of approximately 225 people.
In addition, at least 6,000 deaths with “unknown causes” were recorded in November 2019.
Observers say the high death toll in these protests occurred after a speech by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Iranian regime, on November 16, when he ordered a harsh and severe crackdown on the gatherings.
Khamenei called the protesters “thugs, counter-revolutionaries, and enemies.” The Iranian regime responded to these protests with brutality and also shut down the internet across the country for a period.
