Thirty-six days after the start of the January protests in Iran, Amin Hossein Rahimi, Iran’s Minister of Justice, has admitted that children under the age of 18 were arrested by the Islamic Republic’s security forces and announced that a number of them remain in detention for the purpose of “investigations.”
On Sunday, February 1, the ILNA news agency reported that Amin Hossein Rahimi—who also serves as head of the “Policy Council of the National Authority for Children’s Rights”—confirmed the continued detention of children aged 16 to 18.
Although he did not specify the exact number of detainees, he stated that “a small number of those arrested who are between 16 and 18 years old are being held in correctional and rehabilitation centers, as their cases require further investigation, and they will be released soon after investigations are completed and legal bail is provided.”
Regarding other individuals under the age of 18 who were arrested during the protests, Rahimi said—without providing figures—that “a number of individuals under 18 who were present at the scenes of the recent events and were detained by law enforcement officers were quickly processed by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Children and Adolescents in Tehran and handed over to their families.”
Two days earlier, Iran’s Parliamentary Education Commission had acknowledged that a number of students under 18 were arrested during the crackdown on the January protests, while also reporting that its letter to the Law Enforcement Command regarding students who were killed or detained had gone unanswered.
Alireza Monadi Sefidan, head of the Education Commission, told ILNA on Friday, January 30, that in addition to asking about detained students, the letter also inquired about the number of students who were killed or injured, “but we have not yet received any response.”
These official statements come as the US-based human rights organization HRANA reported on Saturday, January 31, that it has confirmed the killing of at least 137 children under the age of 18 during the suppression of the January protests.
Meanwhile, the Coordination Council of Teachers’ Trade Associations of Iran announced on its Telegram channel that, as of January 30, it had published the names of 100 students killed during the violent crackdown by Islamic Republic forces, as part of a dossier titled “Empty Desks.”
The council stated that the names and images of these children were compiled based on reports from trusted networks and credible sources and that the list is being updated gradually.
These reports also coincide with accounts from citizens in various parts of Iran describing the deployment of government agents to schools, where they spoke with students in an effort to impose the state’s official narrative of the protests.
In this context, Amnesty International announced on January 23 that independent sources and information gathered by the organization indicate that the number of detainees has reached “tens of thousands,” including children and adolescents, university and school students, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and members of ethnic and religious minorities.
