CNN –
Farideh Moradkhani, the niece of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been arrested after calling on foreign governments to cut all ties with the Iranian government.
Moradkhani was arrested on Wednesday when she went to the prosecutor’s office in response to a court order, according to a tweet by her brother Mahmoud Moradkhani.
In a video statement shared by his brother before his arrest, Moradkhani called on people around the world to urge their governments to cut ties with the Iranian regime amid protests sweeping the nation, and to ask their governments to “stop any dealings with this regime”. .”
“O free people, stand with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous, child-killing regime. This regime is loyal to none of its religious principles and knows no law or rule except force and the maintenance of their power in any way possible,” he said.
“Now, at this critical moment in history, all of humanity is watching as the Iranian people, empty-handed, with exemplary courage and bravery, are fighting the forces of evil,” he said. “Right now, the people of Iran are bearing the weight of this great responsibility alone by paying with their lives.”
Farideh Moradkhani said that Iranians are at war with governments that support the Iranian regime and called on democratic countries to withdraw their representatives from Iran and expel Iran’s representatives from their own countries.
“What is urgently needed is to not support this regime that killed thousands of Iranians in four days in November 2019 while the world just watched,” he added.
Farideh and Mahmoud Moradkhani are the children of Ali Tehrani, a cleric and longtime opposition figure who was married to the sister of Supreme Leader Badri Hosseini Khamenei. Tehrani died last month.
Farideh Moradkhani has been detained by the regime before. She was arrested on January 13 when she was on her way home. After his arrest, Iranian security searched Moradkhani’s home and confiscated some of his belongings, according to human rights organizations.
Iran’s ongoing protest movement was initially sparked by the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s moral police in September.
The unprecedented national uprising has seized more than 150 cities and 140 universities in Iran’s 31 provinces, according to the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.
More than 14,000 people, including children, have been arrested in connection with the protests, according to Turk. He said at least 21 of them are currently facing the death penalty and six have already received death sentences.
Iran’s security forces’ violent response to the protesters has shaken diplomatic ties between Tehran and Western leaders.
On Saturday, Khamenei praised the country’s Basij paramilitary force for its role in the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
In a meeting with Basij personnel in Tehran on Saturday, Khamenei described the popular protest movement as “riots” and “thugs” backed by foreign forces and praised “innocent” Basij fighters for protecting the nation.
The Basij is a wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and has been deployed on the streets as protests have escalated.