The lawyer for the family of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman whose death in mid-September while in police custody has led to months of nationwide unrest, has been summoned to the Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office at Tehran's Evin prison and accused of "propaganda against the Islamic republic."
The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network quoted an informed source as saying the charge against Mohammad Saleh Nikbakht is a result of interviews he has given with foreign media.
In an interview with the Faraz website in January, Nikbakht said that four months after Amini's death, "incomplete investigations have been carried out without [the family's] presence or participation as the complainant."
Amini was detained by the morality police while visiting Tehran in September because she was allegedly wearing a head scarf, or hijab, improperly. Iranian authorities say she died of natural causes, but eyewitnesses and her family say the young woman was beaten by security agents.
Nikbakht called on investigators to study the two-hour period of Amini's arrest and transfer to the Morality Police Center instead of pushing him and her family to accept the "late arrival and failure" of the medical staff as the cause of her death.
Amini died on September 16, prompting thousands of Iranians to take to the streets nationwide to demand more freedoms and women's rights. The widespread unrest, which continues, represents the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.
Protests over Amini's death have been met with a violent government crackdown.
The activist organization HRANA said that more than 500 people have been killed during the unrest, including 71 minors, as security forces try to stifle widespread dissent by detaining thousands, including several foreigners.