A female protester has reportedly been beaten and sexually abused while being taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Soha Mortezaei was arrested during a protest on 21st November and was allegedly subjected to sexual and physical abuse in a van on her way to the jail.

The claims emerged from the University Students Trade Unions Council which said: “When the officers were transporting Soha Mortezaei in the car, they tied her right hand to the top of a chair and tied her right leg to the top of another chair, and when she was hanging, she was beaten by one of the female officers and insulted and sexually harassed.”

Mortezaei – the former secretary of the general union council of Tehran University – is still in jail following the arrest by agents from Iran’s Ministry of Information.

Iranian forces have been cracking down on waves of civil disorder following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, who was on a visit to Tehran when she was arrested by morality police, accused of violating hijab rules on 13th September.

She was allegedly beaten while in custody and spent the following days in a coma in the hospital before her death in an intensive care unit on 16th September.

The clinic where she was treated said in a now-deleted social media post that she had been admitted brain-dead.

Alleged medical scans of her skull leaked by hackers showed that she had suffered bone fractures, haemorrhages, and brain oedema.

Independent Iranian media have claimed that Mahsa’s medical records showing her history of heart disease were faked by the Iranian government.

Numbers differ regarding how many people have been killed since the protests began.

The ongoing protests in Iran have killed at least 455 people, including 64 children, and injured at least 1,160, according to independent estimates.

It is also understood that more than 18,000 people have been arrested so far.