Cut ties with Teheran, world urged

Regime does not know any rules except force, says Khamenei’s niece

DUBAI: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s niece, a well known rights activist, has called on foreign governments to cut all ties with Teheran over its violent crackdown on popular unrest kindled by the death in police custody of a young woman.

A video of a statement by Farideh Moradkhani, an engineer whose late father was a prominent opposition figure married to Khamenei’s sister, was being widely shared online after what activist news agency HRANA said was her arrest on Nov 23.

“O free people, be with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime,” Moradkhani said in the video.

“This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any rules except force and maintaining power.”

Khamenei’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

HRANA said 450 protesters had been killed in more than two months of nationwide unrest as of Nov 26, including 63 minors. It said 60 members of the security forces had been killed, and 18,173 protesters detained.

The protests, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest for “inappropriate attire”, pose one of the strongest challenges to the country’s clerical establishment since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, a member of parliament from the mainly Kurdish city of Mahabad, said on Sunday that as many as 105 people had been killed in Kurdishpopulated areas during the protests. He was speaking in a debate in parliament as quoted by the Entekhan website.

Challenging the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy, protesters have burned pictures of Khamenei.

The video was shared on Youtube on Friday by her brother, Francebased Mahmoud Moradkhani, who presents himself as “an opponent of the Islamic Republic” on his Twitter account, and then by prominent Iranian rights activists.

On Nov 23, Mahmoud Moradkhani reported his sister’s arrest as she was heeding a court order to appear at the Teheran prosecutor’s office. Farideh had been arrested earlier this year by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and later released on bail.

HRANA said she was in Teheran’s Evin security prison. Moradkhani, it said, had earlier faced a 15-year prison sentence on unspecified charges.

Her father, Ali Moradkhani Arangeh, was a Syiah cleric married to Khamenei’s sister and recently passed away in Teheran following years of isolation due to his stance against the Islamic Republic, according to his website.

Farideh Moradkhani added in her video: “Now is the time for all free and democratic countries to recall their representatives from Iran as a symbolic gesture and to expel the representatives of this brutal regime from their countries.”