Member of Parliament: Nearly 500 Protesters from January Protests Still Detained

A member of the National Security Commission of the Iranian Parliament announced that the number of detainees from the nationwide protests in January is close to 5,000, of which about 500 are still in custody. Alireza Rahimi, on Friday, February 1, in a note published on his Telegram channel, quoted the head of the Prisons Organization stating that the total number of prisoners from the January events was 4,972. This note discusses the recent visit of 11 parliament members to Evin Prison to assess the conditions of the detainees from the January protests. Previously, the deputy head of the Judicial Commission had mentioned that the number of officials accompanying them was very high, preventing private conversations between the representatives and the prisoners. Alireza Rahimi also addressed this issue in his note, stating: "The density of escorts and individuals accompanying the delegation was surprising. About 50 people accompanied the parliament members during the entire visit." He continued by referring to a report provided by the head of the Prisons Organization, which included statistics on the detainees from the January protests. According to this report, Rahimi wrote: "The total number of prisoners from the January events was 4,972, of which 94.73% were men and 5.27% were women. 50% of the detainees were aged between 19 and 25 years, and 27% were between 25 and 32 years old." The parliament member further stated: "Out of the total detainees, 4,534 have been released, and 438 are still in custody. In addition, 55 individuals are also detained by the Ministry of Intelligence." Previously, Mahmoud Sadeghi, another member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, had reported the number of detainees from the recent protests to be around 3,700. Meanwhile, reports have emerged indicating the deaths of at least five individuals in Evin, Arak, Sanandaj, and Dezful prisons, with officials confirming two cases, stating that they committed suicide. In this context, Ahmad Khatami, the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran, criticized the release of some protesters and called for harsher punishment for them. According to ILNA news agency, some of the recent detainees have been charged with "moharebeh" (waging war against God) and "efsad fil-arz" (corruption on earth).