A fact-finding committee formed by President Ebrahim Raisi to probe the protests that swept Iran in wake of the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 announced that the unrest left 281 Iranian dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.
The report was issued three days before the country celebrates its Nowruz new year holiday and ten days after the release of a UN fact-finding mission report on the violations that took place during the protests.
The government report said “social disturbances” can happen in any society. It added that it was “normal for countries to take measures to contain the situation if protests were to veer off their peaceful course and if they were to go against order, peace and public security.”
The committee defended the “responsible” actions of the security forces in handling the protests.
It said: “The Islamic Republic confronted the situation that unfolded in wake of the death of young woman Mahsa Amini on September 16.” It noted that a protest first erupted around the Kasra hospital in Tehran and days later, spread to other parts of the capital and beyond.
Some elements caused the protests to veer off their peaceful course, it noted.
The committee said it based its findings on witness testimonies, information collected from the media, open sources and reports from the government and non-governmental organizations.
It focused on four issues: claims of human rights violations during the “disturbances”, claims about arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force, information about the death and injury of individuals, and losses in public funds.
Amini’s death
The committee addressed the arrest and death of Amini, 22. It said she lost consciousness 26 minutes after being taken to a police station. She was detained for violating the hijab dress code.
She received treatment by the medical team at the station seven minutes before an emergency team arrived at the scene. She was then transferred to hospital where she died 62 hours later.
The committee stuck to official statements that denied that Amini had succumbed to injuries she had sustained while in custody.
Had the reporting of the incident taken place “correctly in the hours that followed and had accurate information been released at the appropriate time, the public could have been better informed and rumors and false reports by media hostile to Iran would have been contained,” it added.
Amini’s family has dismissed the official authorities’ claims that she had prior health problems.
Deaths
The committee said that out of the 202 civilians who were killed in the protests, 90 had used weapons in terrorist attacks and attacks on military and security bases.
It added that 112 of the victims were “passersby who were killed by rioters.” Fifty-four members of the security forces were killed in the “widespread violence sparked by rioters and terrorists” It also noted the death of 25 people in an ISIS attack on a religious shrine in Shiraz city.
The committee insisted that seven people in the southwestern city of Izeh were killed in a terrorist attack, while their loved ones have said they were shot by security forces.
Iranian human rights organizations have said the actual number of victims from the protests is higher. Trusted sources have put the figure at 551 killed by the security forces, including at least 49 women and 68 children, according to United Nations experts.
The majority of deaths were caused by firearms.
Iranian authorities have executed nine people, while dozens of others have been sentenced to death for their involvement in the protests.
The committee did not disclose the number of wounded, saying the authorities could not reach conclusive figures.
It acknowledged the injury of 5,200 members of the police and 1,540 members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps and its Basij force.
The report said 34,000 people were arrested during the protests, but 90 percent of them have been released on bail.
Root of the protests
The committee said it had taken into account the opinions of researchers and expert opinions on the impact economic sanctions are having on Iran. It also took into account political, security, social and cultural factors and concluded that what took place during the protests was a “planned plot by some foreign countries.”
The report sought to underscore the official story that the protests were part of a conspiracy, pointing fingers at foreign parties, especially countries that condemned how the authorities treated the protesters.
It said “hostile governments and foreign intelligence” played a role in orchestrating and inciting the protests. It accused the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Israel and others of involvement in the unrest.
The report said nine westerners were arrested during the protests, accusing them of involvement in the unrest. It claimed the arrest of 50 members of the opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and 77 members of Kurdish-Iranian opposition parties.
On March 8, a UN fact-finding mission found that Iran employed “unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force” to quell the protests that followed Amini’s death.
The mission said Iran's response to the protests amounted to “crimes against humanity — specifically those of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, forced disappearance and other inhumane acts.”
