HAIFA, Israel—Iranian authorities said on Oct. 31 that public trials will be held for about 1,000 people this week, over six weeks of protests that have followed the death of a young woman in police custody.
The people who will be put on trial may include participants of previous protests concerning economic and civil issues, Eliyahu Yossian, an Israeli expert on Iran, told The Epoch Times. The individuals may be people whom the regime wants to settle a score with, he said.
Yossian, who was born in Iran and has an engineering degree from Iran, immigrated to Israel and served in Unit 8200, an Israeli intelligence corps. He’s a winner of the Israel Defense Award and a researcher of Iran after the Islamic Revolution.
He said those whom the regime puts on trial may include those whom “the regime makes an excuse and takes advantage of the timing to ’settle accounts,'” and also those “the regime is trying to deter” from taking part in the current protests.
‘Suppressed at the Peak of Brutality’
As opposed to previous demonstrations that “were protests of pensioners, teachers, truck drivers, workers who did not receive their salary on time,” these are protests of young men and women who don’t believe in the essence of the Islamic Republic, Yossian said.There aren’t many parents on the streets protesting with their children, he added. The adults are more conservative, more traditional, and “they do not support the youth who are on the street.”
“These protests may last a few more days or weeks,” Yossian said. “They will not achieve any goal, and they will be suppressed at the peak of brutality.”
Her death sparked large anti-government protests that continue across Iran.
Germany condemned the violence of Iranian security forces against protesters and the state repression of journalists, a German government spokesperson said on Oct. 31, according to Reuters.
