Amjad Amini was warned against marking anniversary of daughter\u2019s death before being released
\nTEHRAN
\nThe father of Mahsa Amini was briefly detained on Saturday, human rights groups said, amid a heavy security force presence on the first anniversary of his daughter\u2019s death in Iranian police custody that sparked months of anti-government protests.
\nAmjad Amini was warned against marking the anniversary of his daughter\u2019s death before being released, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network said. Iran\u2019s official IRNA news agency denied that Amjad Amini was arrested, but it did not say if he was briefly detained or warned.
\nEarlier, social media and reports by rights groups spoke of security forces taking up positions around Amini\u2019s home in Saqez, in western Iran.
\nThe death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police last year for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic\u2019s mandatory dress code triggered months of protests that represented the biggest show of opposition to the authorities in years.
\nMany called for an end to more than four decades of Shi\u2019ite clerical rule.
\nAccording to social media posts, Amini\u2019s parents had said in a statement earlier this week that, despite government warnings, they would hold a \u201ctraditional and religious anniversary ceremony\u201d at their 22-year-old daughter\u2019s grave in Saqez.
\nA massive security force presence was deployed in Iran\u2019s mostly Kurdish areas on Saturday in anticipation of unrest, according to human rights groups.
\nWidespread strikes were also reported in multiple cities in Iran\u2019s Kurdistan region.
\nHowever, IRNA said Amini\u2019s hometown of Saqez was \u201ccompletely quiet\u201d and that calls for strike in Kurdish areas had failed due to \u201cpeople\u2019s vigilance and the presence of security and military forces\u201d.
\nIt quoted an official in the Kurdistan province as saying: \u201cA number of agents affiliated with counter-revolutionary groups who had planned to create chaos and prepare media fodder were arrested in the early hours of this morning.\u201d
\nIn the protests that followed Amini\u2019s death more than 500 people, including 71 minors, were killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested, rights groups said. Iran carried out seven executions linked to the unrest.
\nIn a report last month, Amnesty International said Iranian authorities \u201chave been subjecting victims\u2019 families to arbitrary arrest and detention, imposing cruel restrictions on peaceful gatherings at grave sites, and destroying victims\u2019 gravestones\u201d.
\nMany journalists, lawyers, activists, students, academics, artists, public figures and members of ethnic minorities accused of links with the protest wave, as well as relatives of protesters killed in the unrest, have been arrested, summoned, threatened or fired from jobs in the past few weeks, according to Iranian and Western human rights groups.
\nIran\u2019s Etemad daily reported in August that the lawyer for Amini\u2019s family also faced charges of \u201cpropaganda against the system\u201d. If convicted, Saleh Nikbakht faces a jail sentence of between one and three years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amjad Amini was warned against marking anniversary of daughter\u2019s death before being released TEHRAN The father of Mahsa Amini was briefly detained on Saturday, human rights groups said, amid a heavy security force presence on the first anniversary of his daughter\u2019s death in Iranian police custody that sparked months of anti-government protests. Amjad Amini was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-356420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n