Tehran, Iran: Iranian police fired tear gas to disperse a protest in the western, mainly Kurdish city of Sanandaj, where hundreds rallied to decry the death of a young woman while in police custody in Tehran last week, reports said.
The case of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained last Tuesday after Iran’s so-called “morality police” found fault with her headscarf, or hijab, has set off a public outcry in the country, mainly on social media. Police said she died of a heart attack and have denied any allegations of torture or abuse.
On Monday Iranian police called the death of Amini an “unfortunate incident” that they do not want to see repeated, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
He said Amini suffered no mistreatment, denying claims aired on social media against the morality police, who enforce strict rules requiring women to cover their hair and wear loose fitting clothes.
“Cowardly accusations have been levelled against the Iranian police. We will wait until the day of judgment but we cannot stop doing security work,” Rahimi said, adding that the morality police was “doing positive work”.
He said he could not comment on the cause of death because this was a medical rather than a security issue.
Read the article in WAToday (AP,Reuters).