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Iranian protesters clash with police during protest for Mahsa Amini

Iran protests: Rights group says death toll has topped 75 as crackdown intensifies

The Iranian authorities’ official death toll has remained at 41 since Saturday.

LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep 2022

IRAN IS STEPPING up arrests of activists and journalists in a crackdown against civil society as anti-regime protests rage nationwide.

Twenty journalists have been imprisoned since the protests erupted earlier this month over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the country’s notorious morality police, according to the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The fate of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody after being detained by the morality police — because her headscarf was allegedly too loose — has ignited unrest across Iran.

Numerous activists and lawyers have also been held, including the prominent freedom of speech campaigner Hossein Ronaghi who was arrested over the weekend.

The arrests come on top of severe internet restrictions and blocking of sites including Instagram and WhatsApp, which activists say is aimed at preventing details of the protests from reaching the outside world.

“By targeting journalists amid a great deal of violence after restricting access to WhatsApp and Instagram, the Iranian authorities are sending a clear message that there must be no coverage of the protests,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

‘Defending prohibited’

Ronaghi, bitterly critical of Iran’s Islamic leadership, said in a video posted at the weekend that he had initially eluded arrest by escaping his flat when agents came for him.

But he was then detained on Saturday when he went to Tehran’s Evin prison to meet prosecutors and was also beaten by security agents, his brother Hassan wrote on Twitter.

2.68940744 (1) Protesters in Iran. PA PA

His mother told Manoto TV in an interview that Hossein Ronaghi’s leg was broken.

Reports said that his lawyers, who accompanied him to Evin, had themselves been detained.

Two other lawyers have also been arrested, lawyer Saeid Dehghan wrote on Twitter.

“This means defending protesters is prohibited!” he said.

Security forces yesterday raided the home of activist and writer Golrokh Iraee and arrested her, according to a message on her Twitter account.

Iraee, well known for campaigning against stoning sentences in Iran, has spent much of the past decade behind bars.

And activist Majid Tavakoli, who has been repeatedly imprisoned in Iran in recent years including after disputed 2009 elections, remains in jail after his arrest in the early hours of Friday.

What is the latest?

Activists said two university students in their early 20s who were also beginning careers as writers — Banafsheh Kamali and Maedeh Jamal — had also been arrested.

Videos posted on social media claimed to show the moment Jamal was arrested, with a female voice heard yelling for help.

Among the 20 journalists held, according to the CPJ, are photojournalist Yalda Moaiery, who won international recognition for an iconic 2019 photo of protests, and reporter Nilufar Hamedi — who exposed the case of Amini by going to the hospital where she was in a coma.

Hamedi’s husband wrote on Twitter that Hamedi had said in a call from jail that she was in solitary confinement, and was unaware of the charges against her.

Moaiery is being held in the notorious Qarchak women’s prison outside Tehran, from where she told the Iran Wire news website that “we are not safe here” and “the situation is very bad”.

The authorities also arrested five prominent members of the Bahai religious minority in different cities across the country, said Diane Alai, representative of the Bahai International Community to the UN in Geneva.

The Bahai — Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority but not recognised in the Islamic Republic — had already been experiencing a crackdown even before the protests started, with senior figures arrested and homes destroyed.

Activists had accused the Iranian authorities of being in the throes of a crackdown even before the protests began. Two of the country’s most acclaimed filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof were among those arrested.

© AFP 2022

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    Mute Sean Byrne
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 5:47 PM

    Abolish the LPT occupied home tax and implement the law taxing over 183,000 vacant homes. https://www.money.co.uk/mortgages/empty-homes

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    Mute D. Memery
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:22 PM

    @Sean Byrne: as you have linked to a UK site is the law you refer too applicable to the UK or Ireland?

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    Mute Lee King Buckett
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:44 PM

    @D. Memery: Maybe you should actually read the article first? It’s quite interesting in fairness.

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    Mute Sean Byrne
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:03 PM

    @D. Memery: Ireland; There is a Vacancy Tax under the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act, 2015. Under this Act, from 1 January 2017 each local authority is obliged to introduce a vacant site register. With impunity, many councils refuse to comply with this law. As an example, reported in the 2016 census, County Galway had 10’279 vacant properties. The link at the bottom of this page; http://www.galway.ie/en/services/planning/planspolicy/vacantsites/ points to; http://www.galway.ie/en/media/Vacant%20Sites%20Template.docx, which is an empty template document and not a vacant register.

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    Mute D. Memery
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:54 PM

    @Lee King Buckett: I did, but the article doesn’t make any mention of a vacant property tax, hence why I asked as a follow on to the link. Did you read the article?

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    Mute D. Memery
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:55 PM

    @Sean Byrne: thanks

    2
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    Mute Lee King Buckett
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 8:00 PM

    @D. Memery: Yes I did – it’s a source for the 183,000 vacant properties the OP referred to.

    There’s no mention of any tax whatsoever in there nor did the OP mention any law at all so your comment confused me.

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Nov 3rd 2021, 8:06 PM

    @Sean Byrne:
    Revenue are guilty of maladministration by their coercing people to pay this despicable tax on their family homes which is contrary to all Canons of Taxation.

    Revenue don’t collect taxes on other basic needs like : food, water, medicines, education, healthcare, clothes etc .. so why tax shelter (family homes) … a basic human need, essential to life.

    Macron has just removed Tax Habitation on homes in France …
    The Irish need to wake up …
    https://www.change.org/p/abolish-property-tax-on-family-homes

    3
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    Mute Quiet Goer
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:20 PM

    Time to get rid of this silly recession-era tax. Fine Gael lied back in 2011 before they got into power saying they wouldn’t bring in property tax and as soon as they had a nice juicy five year mandate they brought it in anyway.

    The entire ‘local’ thing is just propaganda, money goes to a central pot to pay for Zappone parties and national debt

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    Mute lelookcoco
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:38 PM

    @Quiet Goer: Most countries have a similar tax. Lived in France for years and paid two different property/local taxes.

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:49 PM

    @lelookcoco: Most counties provide services for the taxes that are collected. We pay again privately for our services here. You’re comparing apples and oranges.

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    Mute Jason Walsh
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 8:24 PM

    @lelookcoco: and it covers bins and other services for the property

    35
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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 8:44 PM

    @Declan Doherty: All taxes pay for services. That’s how state finances work.

    6
    Reg
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    Mute Reg
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 9:32 PM

    @Jason Walsh: Ask our UK neigbours how much they’re paying. Our LPT and bin charges come nowhere near their council tax and they get billed for water too.

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    Mute Claudia Varell
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    Nov 3rd 2021, 8:29 AM

    @Reg: It’s okay to get billed for water, when there is a supply with clean water you can drink from the tap and accurate waste water treatment.

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    Mute Reg
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    Nov 3rd 2021, 11:55 AM

    @Claudia Varell: I’m not against the principle of water charges Claudia, simply pointing out the difference in household charges between the UK and Ireland.

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    Mute Zack Twamley
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:26 PM

    If 70% have yet to file for it, this looks like it could become another Water Tax. I hope it does.

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    Reg
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    Mute Reg
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:32 PM

    @Zack Twamley: Or the age old habit of leaving things to the last minute. The vast majority already pay their LPT.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 8:49 PM

    @Zack Twamley: If it does it’ll have to be replaced with a different tax

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:53 PM

    “It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a persons home” – Enda Kenny, 1994

    This tax on family homes should never have been accepted. The only reason FG got away with it was because they got revenue to do their dirty work.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 8:50 PM

    @Declan Doherty: Surely Revenue collecting taxes is their job?

    21
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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Nov 3rd 2021, 7:51 PM

    @Declan Doherty: Agree.

    —– RURAL HOME OWNERS —–

    What Rural Home Owners get for their LPT Property Tax

    No Mains Water
    No Public Sewage system
    No Street Lighting
    No Footpaths
    No Cycle Lanes
    No Buses
    No DART
    No Luas
    No Public Parks
    No Subsidised Theatres

    https://www.change.org/p/abolish-property-tax-on-family-homes

    if You sign the petition an email is sent to Michael Martin …

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Nov 3rd 2021, 8:00 PM

    @Thomas O’ Donnell:

    Revenue don’t collect taxes on other basic needs like : food, water, medicines, education, healthcare, clothes etc .. so why tax shelter (family homes) … a basic human need, essential to life. Revenue are guilty of maladministration by their coercing people to pay this despicable tax on their family homes which is contrary to all Canons of Taxation.

    Macron has just removed Tax Habitation on homes in France …
    The Irish need to wake up …
    https://www.change.org/p/abolish-property-tax-on-family-homes

    2
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    Mute Tony Mcgrath
    Favourite Tony Mcgrath
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:17 PM

    Rang helpline today on 4 occasions told they were busy and ring back latet

    37
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    Mute Leonard O'mahony
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:44 PM

    The self assessment element of filing is difficult for people.This causes reluctance .

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    Mute Jason Ebbs
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 6:51 PM

    @Leonard O’mahony: yep. My dad is 80 and this is actually worrying him, even with me doing it. He’s convinced that if he doesn’t pay enough his house will be taken. He’s band 5 and he wanted to pay band 6 just to be safe. It’s a horrible tax. It’s practically two weeks off his pension.

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    Mute Roy Dowling
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:20 PM

    @Jason Ebbs: My dad was the same. I had everything filled out he wanted to change it to higher band saying it’s better they owe him than him underpaying.

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    Mute Watchful Axe
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:26 PM

    @Leonard O’mahony: There is a bit of a nuisance factor to it. They should have tied it in with An Post to allow people who don’t have a computer to take away a simple form with a free post envelope to return.

    Even if they were worried about doing a bit of work, they could have posted a simple card out to each eircode with a punch hole system and a signature. They could have put the cards through a machine for tallying the bands against the eircodes with the signature checked if someone complains. (and this governmental big data trend is a disgrace, it’ll be a drop of blood for the DNA in twenty years time)

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
    Favourite Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Nov 3rd 2021, 8:02 PM

    @Jason Ebbs:

    Macron has just removed Tax Habitation on homes in France …
    The Irish need to wake up …
    https://www.change.org/p/abolish-property-tax-on-family-homes

    2
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    Mute Tony Mcgrath
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:17 PM

    Rang helpline today on 4 occasions told they were busy and ring back later

    16
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    Mute a
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 7:39 PM

    @Tony Mcgrath: 8 times?

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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 11:03 PM

    Endentured slave tax to the grave

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    Mute Philip Cullen
    Favourite Philip Cullen
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    Nov 2nd 2021, 8:30 PM

    Why would anyone voluntary register for this ridiculous tax.

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
    Favourite Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Nov 3rd 2021, 7:53 PM
    2
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