NCRI – Plainclothes agents patrolling the streets of Sirjan, southern Iran, have arrested at least 32 people in public for failing to observe a fast during daytime in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the commander of the police in the city said.
Colonel Hadi Samareh, the commander of State Security Forces (police) in the city, was quoted by a state-run weekly (Pasargad) as saying: “SSF agents are patrolling the streets in the city of Sirjan and dealing with those who eat.”
Samareh said that so far at least 32 people have been arrested, ten restaurants have been inspected and one coffee shop has been shut down for offering smoking pipes.
Samareh said the SSF had dispatched “undercover units” to patrol the streets and apprehend anyone found eating in public or serving food during daytime.
Anyone in Iran caught eating or drinking in public during daytime in Ramadan may receive 74 lashes in addition to a jail term of up to two months, judiciary officials of the regime have threatened. Special patrols are stationed at streets and public parks to deal with those who drink, eat or smoke in public.
At least 500 people have been arrested and the majority sentenced to flogging in Shiraz, southern Iran, for failing to observe a fast during daytime in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the regime’s deputy prosecutor general in the city has said.
Last year, a Christian man in Iran had his lips burnt with a cigarette for eating during the day in Ramadan. The savage punishment was carried out in public in the city of Kermanshah.
Public floggings have soared in Iran in recent months in a bid to spread fear amongst the country’s youth and prevent public expressions of dissent.
The number of floggings across Iran is much higher than officially announced.
