Iran said it had arrested nine foreigners following deadly street protests sparked by the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, including citizens of France, Germany and Italy.
The announcement by the intelligence ministry came as nationwide protests entered their third week on Friday.
Dozens of people have been killed in heavy-handed responses to the protests that started when Amini, 22, died in custody three days after her arrest by morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Iran's strict dress code for women.
Iran has detained a number of Iranians with dual citizenship over the years, accusing them of spying or otherwise undermining national security. Critics accuse Iran of using such detainees as bargaining chips to secure concessions from the international community.
A number of Europeans were detained in Iran in recent months, including a Swedish tourist, a Polish scientist and others. Two French citizens arrested in June are accused of meeting with protesting teachers and taking part in an anti-government rally.
Unrest also erupted on Friday in Iran's south-eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and is often hit by attacks or clashes between security forces and armed groups, but it was not clear what was behind the violence.
Governor Hossein Khiabani told state television that 19 people were killed, including a colonel from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, during heavy gun battles, while provincial police chief Ahmad Taheri said three police stations were attacked.
Video shared by Iran International, a Persian-language television station based in London, showed men facing gunfire as they stoned a police station in Zahedan, the provincial capital.
The channel also reported bareheaded women chanting “death to the dictator” in the north-western city of Ardabil.
In the south-western city of Ahvaz, security forces fired teargas to disperse people who streamed on to the streets jeering and shouting anti-government slogans, in another video shared by Iran International.
The arrests of Europeans come as leaked government documents showed that Iran ordered its security forces to “severely confront” anti-government demonstrations that broke out last month, Amnesty International said on Friday.
The London-based rights group said security forces have killed at least 52 people since protests over Amini’s death began nearly two weeks ago, including by firing live ammunition into crowds and beating protesters with batons.
It said security forces have also beaten and groped female protesters who remove their headscarves to protest their treatment by Iran’s theocracy.
Irna, meanwhile, reported renewed violence in the city of Zahedan near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. It said gunmen opened fire and hurled firebombs at a police station, setting off a battle with law enforcement.
It said police and passers-by were wounded, without elaborating, and did not say whether the violence was related to the anti-government protests.
The region has been the site of attacks on security forces claimed by militant and separatist groups.
Women have burnt their headscarves and cut their hair in the protests over Amini's death, announced September 16, that are the biggest seen in Iran since demonstrations in November 2019 over fuel price rises.
A leading Iranian human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, told US news magazine Time that she expected the protests to go on regardless of the intensity of the repression.
“What the people want is regime change, and no return to the past,” said Ms Sotoudeh, who is on medical furlough from a 38-year jail sentence for her advocacy work.
“And what we can see from the current protests and strikes that are now being initiated is a very real possibility of regime change.”
Iranian authorities have severely restricted internet access and blocked Instagram and WhatsApp, popular social media applications that are used by protesters to organise and share information.
That makes it difficult to gauge the extent of the protests, particularly outside the capital, Tehran. Iranian media have only sporadically covered the demonstrations.
Amnesty said it had obtained a leaked official document issued to the commanders of armed forces in all provinces on September 21 instructing them to “severely confront” protesters.
Another leaked document showed that on September 23, the commander of the armed forces in Mazandaran province, where some of the deadliest clashes have taken place, ordered security forces to “confront mercilessly, going as far as causing deaths, any unrest by rioters and anti-revolutionaries”.
The NGO said it had confirmed 52 deaths in the protests but the toll was likely to be higher.
Another rights group, Oslo-based Iran Human Rights, said 83 people were confirmed to have been killed, while Iran's Fars news agency has put the death toll at “around 60".
Many Iranian journalists, activists and other prominent figures have been arrested in the crackdown.
Former Iranian international footballer Hossein Maahini was arrested on Friday after supporting the protests on his social media accounts, state media said.
Iranian football fans, meanwhile, asked Fifa to ban their national team from this year's World Cup in Qatar because of the crackdown.
Security forces also arrested singer Shervin Hajipour, whose song Baraye, made up of tweets about the protests, went viral on Instagram, the rights group Article 19 said.
His song, which racked up millions of views, has now been removed from his Instagram account.
The government's violent response has drawn widespread condemnation.
Demonstrations of solidarity with Iranian women have been held worldwide, and rallies were planned in 77 cities on Saturday.
Iran has blamed outside forces for the protests, and on Wednesday it launched cross-border missile and drone strikes that killed 14 people in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region, accusing Iranian Kurdish rebel groups based there of fuelling the unrest.
The IRGC pledged to carry out more attacks until the groups are disarmed.
The US said one of its citizens had been killed in the Iranian strikes.
— With reporting from agencies.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Top New Zealand cop on policing the virtual world
New Zealand police began closer scrutiny of social media and online communities after the attacks on two mosques in March, the country's top officer said.
The killing of 51 people in Christchurch and wounding of more than 40 others shocked the world. Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist, was accused of the killings. His trial is ongoing and he denies the charges.
Mike Bush, commissioner of New Zealand Police, said officers looked closely at how they monitored social media in the wake of the tragedy to see if lessons could be learned.
“We decided that it was fit for purpose but we need to deepen it in terms of community relationships, extending them not only with the traditional community but the virtual one as well," he told The National.
"We want to get ahead of attacks like we suffered in New Zealand so we have to challenge ourselves to be better."
More coverage from the Future Forum
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If you go
The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.
The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).
When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
More from UAE Human Development Report:
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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