Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Photo: REUTERS/ khamenei.ir
A niece of the spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been arrested in Iran.
The reason is apparently that she had repeatedly expressed clear criticism of the leadership in Tehran.
As Farideh Moradchani's brother, Mahmud Moradchani, wrote on Twitter over the weekend, his sister was arrested on Wednesday.
In a video her brother shared on YouTube, she described the Iranian leadership as a "murderous and child-killing regime."
Sanctions against Tehran are insufficient
Moradchani is the daughter of Khamenei's sister Badri, who fell out with her family in the 1980s and fled to Iraq.
Her daughter, who has made a name for herself as an opponent of the death penalty, has been imprisoned several times in Iran.
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In her most recent video, which became public over the weekend, Farideh Moradchani also criticizes a lack of international reaction to the crackdown on the current protests in Iran.
She called the sanctions imposed on Tehran "ridiculous" and complained that the Iranians were being left "alone" in their fight for freedom.
All relations with the government in Tehran would have to be severed.
According to the US-based human rights organization Hrana, the video was widely circulated on the internet.
There she appealed to "free people": "Be with us and tell your governments that they should no longer support this murderous and child-killing regime." According to Hrana, Moradchani is being held in Tehran's Evin security prison.
No comment was initially available from Khamenei's office.
More than 3,000 dead and 14,000 arrested
Iran has been shaken by a nationwide wave of protests since mid-September.
The trigger was the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody - she had been arrested by the vice squad because she is said to have worn her headscarf improperly.
The authorities are taking action against the demonstrators with increasing severity.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, speaks of more than 300 deaths and 14,000 arrests.
flg/AFP/Reuters
