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.



Russian Attack Wounds Three in Ukraine's Sumy Region

Servicemen of 13th Operative Purpose Brigade 'Khartiia' of the National Guard of Ukraine fire an OTO Melara howitzer towards Russian troops at a position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine January 3, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
Servicemen of 13th Operative Purpose Brigade 'Khartiia' of the National Guard of Ukraine fire an OTO Melara howitzer towards Russian troops at a position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine January 3, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
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Russian Attack Wounds Three in Ukraine's Sumy Region

Servicemen of 13th Operative Purpose Brigade 'Khartiia' of the National Guard of Ukraine fire an OTO Melara howitzer towards Russian troops at a position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine January 3, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
Servicemen of 13th Operative Purpose Brigade 'Khartiia' of the National Guard of Ukraine fire an OTO Melara howitzer towards Russian troops at a position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine January 3, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

At least three people, including two children, were wounded in a Russian attack on the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, local authorities said.
Sumy region borders Russia's Kursk region and has been regularly shelled by Russian forces for months.
"Russians dropped a bomb on a residential building. Two children and one adult were injured. One entrance of the apartment building was destroyed," Sumy military administration said on the Telegram messenger.
A rescue operation was under way to find people who may be trapped by rubble, officials said. Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, did not immediately comment on the events in Sumy.
Russia's defense ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Nadiya in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region and had shot down eight US-made ATACMS missiles.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
The ministry said its air defense systems had shot down 10 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory on Saturday morning, including three over the northern Leningrad region.
St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport temporarily halted flight arrivals and departures on Saturday morning.