Iran Revolutionary Guards Arrest Top Lawyer

Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
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Iran Revolutionary Guards Arrest Top Lawyer

Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have arrested prominent lawyer Mostafa Nili, one of more than a dozen rounded up amid a crackdown on protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, his sister said.

Guards intelligence agents detained Nili at Tehran's Mehrabad international airport on Monday night before raiding his mother's house and taking him into custody, Fatemeh Nili tweeted.

Another prominent lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, who is believed to be abroad, confirmed his arrest in a post on Twitter, AFP reported.

Nili was one of the "few hopes for citizens against a political system that is the enemy of lawyers" as well as against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who "consider themselves the law", Dehghan said.

Security forces have waged a campaign of mass arrests that has netted artists, dissidents, journalists and lawyers since protests broke out over Amini's death on September 16.

Amini, 22, died three days after falling into a coma when she was arrested by the notorious morality police in Tehran for allegedly flouting Iran's strict dress code for women based on Islamic sharia law.

Security forces, including the Guards, have killed at least 186 people during the crackdown on the women-led protest movement, the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights says.

At least another 118 people have lost their lives in distinct protests since September 30 in Sistan-Baluchistan, a mainly Sunni Muslim province on Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan.

Thousands of people have been arrested in the crackdown, including more than a dozen lawyers who had been working to defend those taken in before being detained themselves.



Danish Leader Tells the US ‘You Cannot Annex Another Country’ as She Visits Greenland

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's acting head of government Mute Bourup Egede attend a press conference aboard the Danish Navy inspection vessel Vaedderen, in the waters around Nuuk, Greenland, April 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's acting head of government Mute Bourup Egede attend a press conference aboard the Danish Navy inspection vessel Vaedderen, in the waters around Nuuk, Greenland, April 3, 2025. (Reuters)
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Danish Leader Tells the US ‘You Cannot Annex Another Country’ as She Visits Greenland

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's acting head of government Mute Bourup Egede attend a press conference aboard the Danish Navy inspection vessel Vaedderen, in the waters around Nuuk, Greenland, April 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's acting head of government Mute Bourup Egede attend a press conference aboard the Danish Navy inspection vessel Vaedderen, in the waters around Nuuk, Greenland, April 3, 2025. (Reuters)

Denmark's prime minister has told the US during a visit to Greenland that “you cannot annex another country,” even with the argument that international security is at stake.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said on Friday that Washington will respect Greenland's self-determination and Copenhagen “should focus on the fact that the Greenlanders don’t want to be a part of Denmark.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was wrapping up a three-day visit to the strategically critical Arctic island on Friday as US President Donald Trump seeks control of Greenland. He argues that Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark, is critical to US security.

A week ago, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote US military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.

Frederiksen pushed back against the US criticism as she spoke on Thursday alongside Greenland's incoming and outgoing leaders on board a Danish naval ship. She argued that Denmark, a NATO ally, has been a reliable friend.

Speaking in English, she said that “if we let ourselves be divided as allies, then we do our foes a favor. And I will do everything that I can to prevent that from happening.”

“When you ask our businesses to invest in the US, they do. When you ask us to spend more on our defense, we do; and when you ask of us to strengthen security in the Arctic, we are on the same page,” she said.

“But when you demand to take over a part of the Kingdom of Denmark’s territory, when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in about the country that we have admired for so many years?”

“This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations: you cannot annex another country, not even with an argument about international security,” Frederiksen said.

The Danish leader said that, if the US wants to strengthen security in the Arctic, “let us do so together.”

Political parties in Greenland, which has been leaning toward eventual independence from Denmark for years, last week agreed to form a broad-based new coalition government in the face of Trump's designs on the territory. Those have angered many in Greenland and Denmark.

In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, Vance repeated the accusation that Denmark has “really underinvested in the infrastructure and security of Greenland.”

He said Trump's point is that “this matters to our security, this matters to our missile defense, and we're going to protect America's interests come hell or high water.”

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who was attending a meeting in Brussels with his NATO counterparts, wrote on social network X that he had an “honest and direct” meeting Thursday with Rubio.

“I made it crystal clear that claims and statements about annexing Greenland are not only unacceptable and disrespectful,” Løkke Rasmussen wrote. “They amount to a violation of international law.”

Rubio told reporters in Brussels Friday that “no one's annexed anything.” He added that Vance has made clear that “he's going to respect the self-determination of Greenlanders.”

“Denmark should focus on the fact that the Greenlanders don’t want to be a part of Denmark," Rubio said.

“We didn’t give them that idea. They’ve been talking about that for a long time,” he said. "Whenever they make that decision, they’ll make that decision.”

“If they make that decision, then the United States would stand ready, potentially, to step in and say, okay, we can create a partnership with you," Rubio said, adding that "we’re not at that stage.”