Today, Saturday, official media said that the Iranian authorities have arrested one of the most famous actresses in the country on charges of spreading lies about protests that swept across the country.
And the report of the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency stated that Taraneh Alidoosti, the star of the Oscar-winning film “The Salesman”, was arrested a week after she posted on Instagram to express her solidarity with the first man who was recently executed for crimes allegedly committed during the protests that swept the country.
IRNA also said that a number of Iranian celebrities were “summoned by the judiciary for publishing provocative content,” and did not say how many or provide more details.
According to the report posted on the state media’s official Telegram channel, Alidoosti was arrested because she did not provide “any documents consistent with her allegations”.
The 38-year-old actress said in a post: His name is Mohsen Shakari. Every international organization that watches this bloodshed and takes no action is a disgrace to humanity.”
Shekari was executed on December 9 after an Iranian court charged him with cutting down a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the country’s security forces with a machete.
Last week, Iran executed a second prisoner, Majid Reza Rahnavard, over the protests. Rahnord’s body was left hanging from a construction crane as a dire warning to others. Iranian authorities alleged that Rahnavard stabbed two members of their paramilitary force.
The two men were executed less than a month after they were charged, underscoring the speed with which Iran is now carrying out imposed death sentences for alleged offenses related to the demonstrations. Activists say at least 10 people have been sentenced to death in closed hearings.
Aledoosti has made at least three posts on her Instagram account expressing solidarity with the protesters since the demonstrations broke out in September. Her account, which had about 8 million followers, was suspended.
Iran has seen protests since the killing of 22-year-old Mohsa Amini on September 16 after she was detained by the morality police. Since then, the protests have turned into one of the most serious challenges to the Iranian theocracy installed by the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Alidoosti has previously criticized the Iranian government and its police forces.
In June 2020, she was given a five-month suspended prison sentence after she criticized police on Twitter in 2018 for assaulting a woman who had removed her headscarf.
Other films Alidoosti has starred in include “The Beautiful City” and “About Ellie”.
Authorities have arrested Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, two other famous actresses in Iran, for their solidarity with protesters on social media. Both were released.
At least 495 people have been killed in the demonstrations amid a harsh security crackdown, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the protests since their inception. The authorities detained more than 18,200 people.
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