Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denounced a European Parliament resolution related to recent protests in the Islamic Republic over the death of a young Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, who passed away in hospital after being in police custody last month.
Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement on Friday that the resolution “entails baseless and biased presumptions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and hence is void and lacks any value.”
According to him, the document showed that the European Parliament is “continuing its selective behavior towards the great Iranian nation as the Parliament, despite its claims, has never issued any human rights resolution to condemn inhumane sanctions against Iranian people.”
The spokesman further commented that an investigation into Amini’s death is underway, in line with internal laws and senior Iranian officials’ orders, but “not to please others.”
Kanani claimed that the Amini case is “just an excuse” for hardline members of the EU Parliament to continue their “animosity” against Iran.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready for bilateral interaction with all parties based on mutual respect and interests, however, it will firmly stand against any effort to impose pressure or resort to restrictive measures against Iranian people and will give an appropriate reciprocal response,” he underscored.
The remarks came as Iran's Forensic Organization said in a statement on Friday that "Mahsa Amini's death was not caused by blows to the head and vital organs and limbs of the body.” According to the organization, the woman’s death pertained to her "surgery for a brain tumor at the age of eight.”
This follows Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisting earlier in the week that the protests related to Amini’s death have been encouraged by Iran's enemies and their allies, not least the US and Israel.
“I say clearly that these riots and the insecurity were engineered by America and the occupying, false Zionist regime [Israel], as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad,” Khamenei argued.
He also lashed out at the protesters, saying, “What is not normal is that some people, without proof or an investigation, have made the streets dangerous, burned the Quran, removed hijabs from veiled women and set fire to mosques and cars.”
Iran was hit by twenty days of protests following Amini’s death, which left scores of people, both demonstrators and police, wounded or killed. The 22-year-old died in a Tehran hospital on September 16, three days after she was detained by Iran’s Guidance Patrol, better known as the “morality police”, for breaking hijab rules. Protests kicked off on September 17, with demonstrators accusing police of severely beating Amini on social media, something that they claimed caused her death.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi was quick to order a thorough investigation into the Amini case, with the results yet to be made public.