Feb 9, 2026, 6:21 p.mFeb 9, 2026, 6:21 p.m
One month after the mass protests in Iran, the judiciary is taking action against prominent politicians from the reform camp. Numerous personalities have been detained since Sunday, as Iranian media consistently reported. The power apparatus is thus expanding its actions against politicians who actually belong to the established system.
For years there has not been a political force in Iran that the demonstrators recognize as a credible opposition. The so-called reformers, including President Massoud Peseschkian, are also seen by protest participants as part of the Islamic system of rule and unable to bring about fundamental political changes.
The following are now in the focus of the judiciary: Asar Mansuri, chairwoman of the Reform Front, and the former member of parliament Ebrahim Asgharsadeh. Mohsen Aminsadeh, former deputy foreign minister under moderate President Mohammad Khatami, and Jawad Emam were also arrested. He was campaign manager for Mir Hussein Mousavi, the face of the 2009 Green Movement.
Arrested: Asar Mansuri and Mohsen Aminsadeh.Image: x
On Monday evening, the Misan news agency, which is linked to the judiciary, reported further detentions. On the orders of the judiciary, prison sentences were carried out against the politicians Ali Shakuri Rad, Ghorban Behsadian-Nedjad and Hussein Karubi. It was initially unclear whether these were older convictions.
Unusually sharp criticism from the reform camp
Shakuri Rad has caused a stir in recent days with his unusually sharp criticism of the state’s crackdown on the recent mass protests. In an audio recording leaked by Iranian media, he questioned the government’s official narrative on the protests. He accused the security apparatus of sending provocateurs among the demonstrators “in order to then use the violence as a pretext for repression.”
“One of the methods for quelling unrest is to create deaths from our own ranks,” said the critic. Mosques would be set on fire and the Koran would be burned. “All of these things have to happen so that, from their point of view, protests can be turned into “riots” and then suppressed. That’s why I don’t believe what they say at all,” said Shakuri Rad.
Thousands of protesters killed in early January
At the end of December, demonstrations broke out in Iran due to the severe economic crisis, which quickly developed into mass protests against the country’s authoritarian rule. At the height of the protests, security forces killed thousands of demonstrators on the nights of January 8th and 9th. The human rights network HRANA says it has verified more than 6,400 cases so far.
The state, on the other hand, spreads a different narrative: mercenaries hired by the arch-enemies USA and Israel are said to have carried out terrorist attacks across the country.
Also criticism of reformists
President Massoud Peseschkian called for understanding at the start of the protests at the end of December, when mainly traders took to the streets. He did not criticize the brutal state action. The real power in Iran is already concentrated in the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the influential Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s elite armed forces.
Iran’s reformists are committed to the status quo of the Islamic Republic and are seeking changes within the system. Their conservative rivals, the so-called fundamentalists or hardliners, form the second major camp. In times of crisis in recent years there have been repeated violent conflicts and power struggles between the factions. The younger generation in particular no longer has any hope of reform and is openly calling for the overthrow of the authoritarian system of rule. (hkl/sda/dpa)