Iran is staging mass mourning in public while silencing critics in private, according to rights advocates and people close to those detained. As the state prepares a high-profile funeral for late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei aimed at showcasing national unity, security forces this week arrested two prominent environmentalists, Houman Jokar and Sepideh Kashani, along with Kashani's sister, who has multiple sclerosis, their lawyer said. No charges have been announced, the New York Times reports, and state media have not reported the arrests.
Jokar and Kashani, longtime members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation and known for efforts to protect Iran's Asiatic cheetahs, previously spent more than six years in prison on espionage charges they denied. Amnesty International says more than 6,000 people have been detained since the US-Israeli war began on Feb. 28, part of what it and other groups describe as a deepening crackdown on protesters, activists, and civil society. The renewed detentions follow deadly protests calling for an end to Iran's current system of rule. The government has expanded its use of the death penalty for demonstrators.
The director of Iran Human Rights, a nonprofit based in Oslo, said government officials have few options remaining for maintaining control of its citizens, per the Wall Street Journal. "They do not have legitimacy among people. The economy is in a terrible state," Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said. "The only way they can hold on to power is by instigating fear." President Masoud Pezeshkian has urged all Iranians to attend the funeral ceremonies, while former political prisoner Siamak Namazi publicly questioned how such arrests square with official calls for "national reconciliation."
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