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A tech expert and one of Iran’s most celebrated IT experts has been seized by the state’s security forces.
Amir Emad Mirmirani, also known simply as ‘Jadi’, the winner of Iran’s Science Outreach Award last year, was reportedly arrested by Iranian security forces on Wednesday, 5th October.
Mirmirani is a programmer and data scientist with more than twenty years of professional programming experience who has a lot of experience in teaching in the field of IT. He is famous in Iran for being an IT activist who has a popular tech podcast. He also lectures on programming and on blockchain.
One of his family members, who has not been named, reportedly said: “Today they rang the doorbell at 2 o’clock and said that we have a gas leak. When we went to the door, they attacked us. They entered with force, intimidation and threats of shockers and weapons., without showing a search warrant or an arrest warrant. They took Jadi with them.”
Protests erupted in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Mahsa, 22, was declared brain dead and died in hospital three days after apparently being beaten by Iran’s morality police.
She had been detained for what was described as a ‘re-education class’ after she was arrested next to a metro station in Tehran for failing to adhere to Iran’s strict hijab rules on 13th September.
Hours later she was in hospital with a skull fracture “caused by a direct blow” and internal bleeding, according to hacked CT scans obtained by a London-based news organisation known as Iran International.
Doctors went on to say that Mahsa had blood and fluid in her lungs because she went into a coma soon after receiving a blow to the head, according to the news organisation.
United States National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, wrote in a tweet that Iranian authorities should be held accountable for human rights violations.
Tehran officials reportedly at first said that Mahsa died of a heart attack and went on to say that she suffered from epilepsy, a claim that her father has denied.
All women, including tourists, have had to wear a headscarf in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Mahsa’s death caused outrage around the world and sparked protests in Iran, with the country shutting down parts of the internet in a bid to disrupt the growing protest movement.
A growing list of celebrities have voiced their support for the protests and for Mahsa.
They include former First Lady of the United States and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, British Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner, American model Bella Hadid, Hollywood icon Sharon Stone, pop star Justin Bieber, Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, Kim Kardashian, Turkish singer Melek Mosso, Penelope Cruz, Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, actress Eva Mendes, and the British Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, among others.
(T4/ends)
