In the wake of a surge in road accidents during the Norouz holiday period, Iranian authorities have increased fines up to seven times while the country endures an economic crisis.
Ahmad Shirani, the head of the Traffic Information and Control Center of the Traffic Police, disclosed to state news on Friday that the death toll from accidents during this year's Norouz festivities has risen to 585 so far, stemming from 484 separate incidents.
Last year, the holiday period saw 1,168 fatalities, up from 1,146 in 2022, with one person dying in a road accident every half hour during the year in Iran according to local media.
“Provinces such as Kerman, Fars, Sistan and Baluchestan, Isfahan (Esfahan), Khorasan Razavi, and Khuzestan have been identified as hotspots for fatal road accidents,” he said.
Teymoor Hosseini, the head of the Traffic Police, revealed that fines will see a fivefold increase on average, with the highest hike reserved for driving under the influence, skyrocketing by sevenfold.
Law enforcement authorities, including Siavash Mohebbi, the deputy head of the Traffic Police, have pointed fingers at drivers with vehicle confiscations on the rise.
The blame game extends beyond drivers, with Iranian authorities consistently attributing accidents to factors such as inability to control vehicles, and driver fatigue. Reports have also surfaced regarding the substandard quality of Iranian-made vehicles and poor road conditions.
However, critics argue that the government's focus on penalizing drivers overlooks systemic issues such as the lack of measures to enhance the quality of car production and address the country's dangerous roads.
The body of the 20-year-old woman was found in her father’s house in the Iranian capital Tehran on Sunday.
According to the report, Tabrizi was subjected in the last weeks of her life to severe psychological pressure by the security agents of the Iranian government and was summoned to Iran’s infamous Ministry of Intelligence just one day before her death.
On November 16, Tabrizi was detained by security forces at Tehran’s International Airport, along with another citizen, while on her way to England. She was sent to Ward 29 of the Evin prison, belonging to the Ministry of Intelligence. After around ten days of interrogation, she was released on a bail of 10 billion rials ($20,000).
According to the information received by Iran International, Tabrizi was forced to spend the first three days of her detention in solitary confinement, a challenging period for her which led to severe anxiety, high blood pressure and high heart rate. She was later transferred to a three-person cell in Evin Prison.
“Sara was threatened by the interrogators that if she fails to cooperate with them, she will be sent back to solitary confinement and that the private content of her cell phone would be made public so that it would reach her family,” a source close to Tabrizi’s family revealed to Iran International.
Tabrizi was once again summoned and detained on January 8, this time released on a bail of 20 billion rials ($40,000).
Subsequently tried by notorious Judge Iman Afshari in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, she was sentenced to suspended imprisonment over such charges as “insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and using fake documents and someone else’s passport.”
In an official report submitted to Tabrizi’s family in the presence of security agents, Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization announced “taking pills” as the cause of her death.
Referring to people dying suspiciously in prisons or shortly after release, the Iranian regime often claims they have committed suicide, though it is now widely disregarded as propaganda.
“Her family found no empty pill box near her corpse. They do not know whether she committed suicide, had a stroke or was killed by the agents themselves,” the source told Iran International.
Last week, Alireza Khari, another former political prisoner, committed suicide under continuous psychological pressure and torture, even after release from prison. He was arrested during the nationwide uprising triggered by the death in morality-police custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022.
Judiciary officials who have always refused to allow international investigations into Iranian prisons, claim conditions at these facilities are suitable. The experience of many prisoners, however, proves that prisons and detention centers run by security forces have become “killing grounds” for prisoners, especially dissidents.
In the past month alone, several political prisoners attempted or committed suicide. These include Mosayeb Yeganeh who was returned to Tehran’s Evin prison from hospital before the completion of his treatment. Shahin Gallehdari, a Kurdish political prisoner was another victim who died at the ultra-security ward of the Central Prison of Orumieh in northwestern Iran, and Hasan Omarpour, another Kurdish prisoner self-immolated at the same prison.
"The issue of Palestine is one of the current concerns of the Iranian Supreme Leader. Therefore, we also support you in the parliament and provide the necessary support to the resistance front," Ghalibaf said during the meeting, Ali Khamenei having given birth to Iran's proxy militias around the Middle East.
"In addition, the support of other forces of the resistance front, especially Lebanon and Syria, in the fight against the Zionist regime, was very important," he added, referencing the attacks on Israel launched on other fronts, not only from Gaza by Hamas.
In 2018, US President Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, claimed Iran provided $100 million annually to Hamas compared to $700m annually to Hezbollah.
Haniyeh, who arrived in Iran on Tuesday, held talks with key Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.
Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, also met with Speaker Ghalibaf on Thursday. He also held a meeting with Khamenei on Thursday.
The meetings come against the backdrop of a recent United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where Hamas has been engaged in conflict with Israel following its invasion of the Jewish state on October 7, killing 1,200 mostly civilians and kidnapping more than 250 others.
Haniyeh's visit marks his second trip to Iran since the outbreak of the war, the worst Gaza conflict since Hamas took control of the strip in 2007. Hamas claims around 32,000 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory attacks in its bid to eradicate the terror group and rescue the remaining hostages.
While Lebanon’s Hezbollah is by far Iran's richest and most powerful proxy, the combined funds of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are enormous, Hamas and Islamic Jihad receiving a large share of Tehran’s aid.
