Hengaw: Government Forces Arrested 16 Residents of Dashti City in Two Months

A human rights organization reported the arrest of sixteen residents of Dashti city in Hormozgan province over the past two months, with no information available on the status of twelve of them. The Hengaw human rights organization announced on Saturday, July 23, that these individuals have been arrested by 'government forces' in the cities of Dashti and Shiraz since late June and transferred to Hormozgan prison. According to the report, the charges against these individuals have not been disclosed, and given the temporary release of four of them, no news has been published regarding the fate of the other twelve. Hengaw reported that the arrests occurred between June 22 and July 20, and the name of the arresting authority has not been disclosed. Hengaw has published the names of these sixteen individuals from Dashti city, stating that four of them were temporarily released on bail on Wednesday, July 21, until the end of the judicial proceedings. Last year, amid the Iranian government's propaganda about a governmental amnesty, there were reports about the summons of fifteen protesters residing in Dashti to prison. Dashti city, part of Parsian County in Hormozgan province, was among the cities that witnessed widespread protests last year following the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police. The summons of 54 lawyers supporting Mahsa Amini's family to the prosecutor's office in Boukan, increased security pressures on Abdulhamid; the arrest and expulsion of 132 clerics from Makki Mosque, the arrest of five Baha'i citizens in Kerman, the raid of Islamic Republic forces on homes in Minab; severe checkpoints and inspections in Kermanshah, and pressure on plaintiffs; arrest, trial, imprisonment, and flogging for the relatives of those who died in the protests.