Revolutionary Guards Showcase Forced Confessions of “Royalist” Protesters

The Tasnim news agency, associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has released a video featuring forced confessions from several individuals who were allegedly involved in raising the "lion and sun” monarchist flag during protests in the restive city of Zahedan.

The video, which is four minutes long, shows the individuals making statements that they were in contact with royalists living abroad and that they were instructed to raise the flag during the protests. 

The individuals also claimed they were given a package of flags and posters by the royalists.

"The confessions of those arrested in connection with this incident in Zahedan reveal that they comprised a four-person team," Tasnim claimed. "They communicated through foreign messengers and received a supply of flags and posters from an intermediary." 

"They were tasked with hoisting the lion and sun flag amid the gathering crowd after Friday prayers in Zahedan. They then recorded a video of this act and forwarded it to the foreign intermediator," it added. 

Obtaining forced confessions under duress is widespread within Islamic Republic security agencies. It appears that the release of these coerced confessions was aimed at attributing the protests to external influences.

Zahedan has seen protest rallies almost every Friday since September 30 of last year, when security forces killed nearly 100 people in the deadliest incident of widespread demonstrations sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. 

Security forces have responded to the women-led protest movement with brutal force, killing hundreds of people and unlawfully detaining thousands, including dozens of journalists, activists say. 

Following biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.

The protests and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in western Kurdish areas and Sistan and Baluchistan, which is home to Iran's Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people.