Mahsa Amini’s grave vandalized in Iran

Vandals broke into the grave of Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death in prison last September led people all over Iran to protest against the government.

Photos from her family showed that her tombstone and portrait were broken at the Aichi graveyard in the city of Saqqez in the west of the country.

Her brother wrote on Instagram that it was the second time in a few months that someone had attacked them.

Ashkan Amini wrote, “Even the glass on your tombstone bothers them,” but he didn’t say who was to blame.

He promised, “We will fix it no matter how many times they break it. Who will get tired first?”

In a recorded message, the family’s lawyer, Saleh Nirbakht, said that the grave was vandalised on Sunday by people who “have been known to do such disgusting things in the past.”

He also said that Mahsa’s father had told him that the government had stopped a protection canopy from being put over the grave by telling a local welder that if he did the work, his business would be shut down.

Mahsa died in a hospital in Tehran on September 16, three days after she was arrested by morality police in the city for breaking Iran’s strict rules about women covering their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.

Witnesses said the 22-year-old Kurd was beaten while in police custody, but the officials denied this and said she died of “sudden heart failure.”

After her funeral, the first protests happened in her city of Saqqez, where women took off their headscarves to show their support.

They spread quickly across the country and became one of the biggest problems the Islamic Republic has had since the revolution in 1979.

Security forces have violently put down protests, calling them “riots” that were started by foreigners and killing hundreds of people and arresting thousands more.

Since December, seven protesters have also been put to death after what a UN expert called “arbitrary, quick, and fake trials with claims of torture.” Reports say that dozens more people have been put to death or charged with crimes that can lead to death.

Authorities in the central city of Isfahan hanged three men last week after they were found guilty of “enmity against God” for their claimed role in a shooting attack during protests in November that killed three security officers.

Amnesty International was told by sources that Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi were taken away against their will, tortured, and made to say things that would be used against them.

Human rights groups are now worried because officials in the southern province of Fars said on Monday that two Afghan men, Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeim Hashem Ghotali, would soon be killed in public.

The Supreme Court recently upheld their convictions for “corruption on Earth” and “armed rebellion against the state” in connection with the killing of 13 people in an armed attack on the Shah Cheragh tomb in the city of Shiraz on October 26, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Iran Human Rights, which is based in Norway, said that they were sentenced to death “based on confessions made under torture, without due process and fair trial rights.”