Police make more than two dozen fresh arrests over Iran riots
Iranian police force said it had nabbed over two dozen more of main elements behind the recent countrywide riots following protests in several cities triggered by gasoline rationing and price hikes.
Commander of Tehran’s Police Mohsen Khancherli said Tuesday that security forces had identified and arrested six people during separate operations in Robat-karim County, west of Tehran Province.
He said that the suspects had confessed to their acts of sabotage.
The police will decisively deal with any act of violence, he said, adding that those who seek to undermine the security of citizens and loot public property will face prosecution.
Meanwhile, the commander of Lorestan Province’s Police Brigadier General Haji Mohammad Mahdian Nasab announced that his forces had identified and arrested 17 leaders of protests against fuel price rises in the western province, IRNA reported.
Meanwhile, Ardebil Province’s Police Commander
Brigadier General Houshang Hosseini announced the arrest of four key elements of riots in
Tehran.
Hosseini said Tuesday that the men who were arrested in the northwestern city of Khalkhal were the main elements behind the riots in southern Tehran that caused disturbances, traffic jams, demolition of public property and cars in the capital city, IRNA reported.
The Iranian government raised gasoline prices on November 15 in order to moderate the national consumption rate, which stands at 110 million liters per day, 40 million liters above the maximum daily domestic requirement.
The move prompted some peaceful protests, but riotous elements, taking advantage of the circumstances, quickly entered the scene, destroying public property and setting banks and gas stations ablaze.
Authorities say some also used firearms and other weapons against protesters and security forces.
There have been reports of fatalities among both security forces and civilians in different locations, with an official tally not available yet.
Iran earlier rounded up around 100 ringleaders and masterminds of the violent attacks.
Last Friday, Judiciary Spokesman Gholam-hossein Esmaili said a number of those elements were tied to the notorious Us-backed Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terror group, royalists as well as separatists, who were nabbed in the country’s border provinces, besides members of organized groups trained towards staging acts of sabotage.