Amir Reza Nasr-Azadani, a football player in Iran’s Premier League, has been sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court

UPDATES: Iran Protests — Security Forces Kill and Wound Demonstrators in Kurdish Northwest

UPDATE 1146 GMT:

Mehdi Beyk, a senior reporter for the daily Etemad, is the latest journalist arrested during Iran’s 16-week nationwide protests.

Beyk has interviewed the families of detainees during the demonstrations, including the mother of a 15-year-old who was released on bail following the publication of the case in Etemad.

Officials in Iran, the world’s #1 imprisoner of journalists, have arrested more than 70 media personnel since September 16.

UPDATE 1134 GMT:

A court in Zahedan in southeastern Iran has sentenced a 22-year-old disabled protester to death on the charge of “corruption on Earth”.

Mansour Dehmordeh was tried on January 3 and informed of the sentence by the judge two days later, said Baluch rights group HAALVSH.

A source told the group, “Mansour told the judge in court that he only threw three stones and set a tire on fire, and the judge replied that anyone who protests against [Supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei’s government will be sentenced to death.”

Dehmordeh was arrested on October 3. He is reportedly held incommunicado in Zahedan Central Prison, and had his nose and a tooth broken during interrogation.

Zahedan has been a center of the 16-week protests over rights, justice, and gender equality. More than 100 demonstrators and worshippers have been slain by security forces.

Zahedan and the Sistan and Baluchestan region are home to a Baluch minority of up to 2 million people, who have faced discrimination and repression for decades.

UPDATE, JAN. 6:

Iranian authorities have detained celebrity chef Navab Ebrahimi, known for his Instagram videos promoting Persian cooking.

Ebrahimi, who had 2.7 million followers before his account was removed, was seized in Tehran on Wednesday and taken to Evin Prison. His cafe Noj was shut down.

No reason was given for the arrest. However, it followed his posting of a recipe for Persian cutlets on January 3 — the same day the regime promoted ceremonies over the third anniversary of the US assassination of Revolutionary Guards Gen. Qassem Suleimani.

Suleimani was slain by an American drone strike, as his convoy was leaving Baghdad International Airport. Anti-regime activists and protesters have been referring to him as “Kotlet”, defacing his posters and statues with the word.

A man spray-paints “Kotlet” on a Soleimani banner beside a jammed Tehran motorway.

UPDATE 1101 GMT:

An Iranian court has imposed death sentences on teenagers Arshia Takdastan and Mehdi Mohammadifard for “corruption on Earth” and “waging war against God”.

Takdastan, 18, was accused of throwing a drinking bottle and a stone at a police car during a protest in the city of Nowshahr in northern Iran. Mohammadifard was condemned for helping organize and lead the September 21 rally.

UPDATE 1059 GMT:

Images of award-winning actor Taraneh Alidoosti after her release on Wednesday from 17 days of detention in Tehran’s Evin Prison….

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Center for Human Rights in Iran has detailed Iranian athletes killed, detained, and facing death sentences during the 16-week nationwide protests for rights, justice, and gender equality.

Trying to suppress the demonstrations, Iran’s security forces have killed more than 500 protesters and arrested more than 19,000. Two protesters have been hanged, with dozens more either sentenced to death or charged with offenses that can lead to execution.

To shut down dissent by high-profile public figures, authorities have imprisoned a series of cultural and sporting figures. The athletes include:

  • Volleyball player Ali Mozaffari, who had been invited to the national team’s training camp, shot and killed by security forces in Qoochan in Fars Province
  • Football goalkeeper Mohammad Ghaemi, shot and killed in an alley during a protest on October 22 in Dezful in Khuzestan Province
  • National bodybuilding champion Ehsan Ghasemifar, killed in Kangavar in Kermanshah Province — local authorities forced the family to say he suffered a cardiac arrest
  • Former national karate champion Mohammad Mehdi Karami, whose death sentence was upheld last week by the Supreme Court — he was denied a lawyer of his choice during the trial and said he was forced to “confess”
  • Iranian Premier League football player Amir Reza Nasr-Azadani, sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court after he was forced to “confess”
  • Sahand Nour-Mohammadzadeh, third in Iran’s national bodybuilding championships, sentenced to death for alleged arson and destruction of public property
  • Swimming champion Parham Parvari, facing the death penalty on the charge of “waging war” — he was arrested by security agents while sitting in his car amid street protests in Tehran
  • Rock climber Marjan Jangjou, arrested in early Novembeer in her home — her whereabouts are unknown
  • Eshragh Najafabadi, a former member of Iran’s national cycling and mountain climbing teams, arrested with fellow rock climbers and snowboarders in Shiraz in Fars Province on November 9 — the six men say there were tortured and forced to make video “confessions” for State media

    • Iranian officials have also summmoned and temporarily detained football stars Voria Ghaffouri, Parviz Boroumand, Kaveh Rezaei, and Hossein Mahini and world Greco-Roman wrestling champion Alireza Nejati.

    Authorities have shut down the Tehran restaurant and jewelry shop of Ali Daei, one of Iran’s most famous football players. His wife and children have been prevented from joining him in Dubai, when officials forced a passenger jet to return to the Iranian capital.