Iranian Teenager Armita Geravand Dies after Alleged Confrontation with Officers

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
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Iranian Teenager Armita Geravand Dies after Alleged Confrontation with Officers

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old Iranian girl, has died following an alleged encounter with officers over violating the country's hijab law, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

"Unfortunately, she went into a coma for some time after suffering from brain damage. She died a few minutes ago," IRNA reported.

Geravand had been pronounced brain dead last week after she fell into a coma on Oct 1, Reuters reported.

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police last September sparked months of anti-government protests that spiralled into the biggest show of opposition to Iranian authorities in years.

Right groups were the first to make Geravand's hospitalization public, posting photos on social media that showed her unconscious and on life support, with a respiratory tube and her head bandaged.

Iran has denied that Geravand was hurt after a confrontation on Oct. 1 with officers enforcing the mandatory Islamic dress code in the Tehran metro.

Women are required by law to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes in Iran.

Violators face public rebuke, fines or arrest yet defying the strict Islamic dress code, more women have been appearing unveiled in public places such as restaurants and shops since Amini's death.



US Transfers 11 Guantanamo Detainees to Oman after More than Two Decades without Charge

16 October 2018, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay: A US flag flies in the wind behind a barbed wire fence at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. (dpa)
16 October 2018, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay: A US flag flies in the wind behind a barbed wire fence at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. (dpa)
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US Transfers 11 Guantanamo Detainees to Oman after More than Two Decades without Charge

16 October 2018, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay: A US flag flies in the wind behind a barbed wire fence at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. (dpa)
16 October 2018, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay: A US flag flies in the wind behind a barbed wire fence at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. (dpa)

The Pentagon said Monday it had transferred 11 Yemeni men to Oman this week after holding them for more than two decades without charge at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The transfer was the latest and biggest push by the Biden administration in its final weeks to clear Guantanamo of the last remaining detainees there who were never charged with a crime.

The latest release brings the total number of men detained at Guantanamo to 15. That's the fewest since 2002, when President George W. Bush's administration turned Guantanamo into a detention site for people taken into custody around the world in what the US called its “war on terror." The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and military and covert operations elsewhere followed the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks.

The men in the latest transfer included Shaqawi al-Hajj, who had undergone repeated hunger strikes and hospitalizations at Guantanamo to protest his 21 years in prison, preceded by two years of detention and torture in CIA custody, according to the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

Rights groups and some lawmakers have pushed successive US administrations to close Guantanamo or, failing that, release all those detainees never charged with a crime. Guantanamo held about 800 detainees at its peak.

The Biden administration and administrations before it said they were working on lining up suitable countries willing to take those never-charged detainees. Many of those stuck at Guantanamo were from Yemen.