Online videos show Iranian police shooting protesters

Online videos show Iranian police shooting protesters
Iranian security forces have been shooting those protesting water scarcity, new video footage has revealed.
2 min read
01 July, 2018
Iranians are protesting rising prices and record levels of unemployment [Getty]

Iranian authorities shot at demonstraters protesting water scarcity in the country’s south, new online videos showed.

The footage of the demonstrations around Khorramshahr, some 650 kilometres (400 miles) southwest of Tehran, emerged early on Sunday.

State-run IRNA news agency reported that protesters threw stones and debris at police, who responded with tear gas. It did not mention the gunfire.

The protests overnight come after three days of demonstrations in Tehran, including protesters confronting police outside parliament and officers firing tear gas at the demonstrators. The rallies led to the temporary closure of the city’s Grand Bazaar.

The unrest comes as international firms have pulled away from Iran after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein condemned Iran's continued use of the death penalty against juveniles. 

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein stressed on Thursday that executing minors is strictly against international law no matter the circumstances of the crime. 

Hussein's remarks come a day after Abolfazi Chezani Sharahi, who was 15 years old when he was convicted for stabbing and killing a man, was put to death. He is the fourth minor to be executed in 2018 alone. 

"I am deeply disturbed that Iran continues to implement the death penalty against juvenile offenders, with some 85 others reportedly on death row," Hussein said. "We understand that the execution of at least one more juvenile offender, Mohammad Kalhori, is imminent and urge the authorities not to carry it out, but instead to commute the sentences of all juvenile offenders on death row."

Iran is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.