10 killed in Iran amid high-profile arrests

AN EERIE calm settled over the streets of Tehran yesterday as state media reported at least 10 more deaths in post-election unrest and said authorities arrested the daughter and four other relatives of ex-President Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s most powerful men.

The reports brought the official death toll for a week of boisterous confrontations to at least 19. State television inside Iran said 10 were killed and 100 injured in clashes on Saturday between demonstrators contesting the result of the June 12 election and police wielding truncheons, tear gas and water cannons.

Iran’s regime continued to impose a blackout on the unrest. But fresh images and allegations of brutality emerged as Iranians at home and abroad sought to shed light on a week of astonishing resistance to hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The New-York based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said scores of injured demonstrators who had sought medical treatment after Saturday’s clashes were arrested by security forces at hospitals in the capital.

It said doctors had been ordered to report protest-related injuries to the authorities, and that some seriously injured protesters had sought refuge at foreign embassies to evade arrest.

“The arrest of citizens seeking care for wounds suffered at the hands of security forces when they attempted to exercise rights guaranteed under their own constitution and international law is deplorable,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the campaign, denouncing the alleged arrests as “a sign of profound disrespect by the state for the well-being of its own people”.

State-run Press TV reported that Rafsanjani’s eldest daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, and four other family members were arrested late Saturday. It did not identify the other four. Last week, state television showed images of Hashemi, 46, speaking to hundreds of supporters of Mousavi.

Rafsanjani, 75, has made no secret of his distaste for Ahmadinejad, who has accused Rafsanjani and his family of corruption.

The influential Rafsanjani now heads two very powerful groups. The most important one is the Assembly of Experts, made up of senior clerics who can elect and dismiss the Supreme Leader.

The second is the Expediency Council, a body that arbitrates disputes between parliament and the unelected Guardian Council, which can block legislation.

Also yesterday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki held a news conference where he rebuked Britain, France and Germany for raising questions about reports of voting irregularities in hardline Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

In Washington President Barack Obama urged Iranian authorities to halt “all violent and unjust actions against its own people.”

He said the US “stands by all who seek to exercise” the universal rights to assembly and free speech.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres applauded Iran’s pro- reform protesters yesterday, saying the young should “raise their voice for freedom”.