A court in Iran’s northern Tabriz city has acquitted 11 Azerbaijani activists who had participated in large-scale anti-government protests in summer.
Activists – Jabbar Rahdar, Hadi Afsari, Gholam Hossein Qarjeh Daghi, Pouya Khodaei, Shayan Taghavi, Yashar Kazemi, Aref Moradpour, Abolfazl Keramati, Hossein Yousefi, Olduz Ghasemi, and Monira Chaman Golzar – were acquitted on November 1 as the criminal charge brought againat them – “gathering that lead to disturbing public order and depriving people of business by participating in illegal gatherings” was dropped by the court ruling on November 1.
The activists held a protest on July 24 in Tabriz in support of anti-government demonstrations that were held on July 15 in Iran’s west eastern Khuzestan region. Following that rallies, the activists were detained by law-enforcers.
Previously, three Azerbaijani Turkic activists – Abolfazl Karamati, Yousef Salahshour, and Amir Sattari – were summoned to a court in Iran over anti-government protests held in summer. The activists had allegedly organized a large-scale protest in Tabriz city in July in support of anti-government protests in the Khuzestan region.
On July 15, people across dozens of towns and cities in Khuzestan province, which has a large ethnic Arab population, held protests for several nights to demand clean water supply in the region. The protests in Khuzestan and other provinces including Isfahan, Lorestan, Eastern Azerbaijan, Tehran, and Karaj were initially against the clean water shortage in the region but later were expanded to cover larger socio-economic issues such as poverty and environmental and racial problems.
According to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), six protesters were killed and at least 171 were arrested during violent protests in Khuzestan.
