Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Persian article.
Iran's intelligence forces are continuing their crackdown on people who took part in the late December 2025 to January 2026 anti-regime protests.
In its most recent report, the Intelligence Directorate of Qazvin Province claimed to have arrested 39 people in connection with the demonstrations. In a statement, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence described the detainees as “mercenaries of the American-Zionist enemy” and alleged that they had been operating in eight organized groups.
The ministry alleged that the detainees were involved in damaging and setting fire to homes, banks, public and personal vehicles, and a gas station on Shahid Babaei Street in Qazvin City, as well as looting stores and government premises. The statement further accused 10 of the detainees of killing an unspecified number of security personnel.
The statement's claims could not be independently verified. International rights groups strongly dispute the Iranian regime's narrative. Independent human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and UN-mandated bodies, have consistently characterized similar charges against protesters as fabricated and politically motivated.
Rights groups highlight that the Islamic Republic routinely relies on forced, televised confessions extracted under torture and solitary confinement to justify harsh sentencing and bypass due process. Detainees are routinely denied access to legal counsel or fair trials.
The protests began in Tehran on December 28, 2025, and rapidly spread nationwide, fueled by public anger over regime mismanagement, systemic corruption, and a severe economic crisis. Slogans chanted by demonstrators called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic. While official state reports attempt to minimize the scale of the state violence, international observers report that tens of thousands of Iranians were killed or arbitrarily detained as security forces used lethal force to suppress the demonstrations.
The announcement of new arrests in Qazvin follows a series of similar state media releases. A few days earlier, the Ministry of Intelligence reported detaining 11 individuals in Malekshahi County, Ilam Province, alongside earlier announcements of 31 arrests in Sirjan and 126 in Tehran Province.
Judicial cases have since been opened against many of those swept up in the nationwide raids. The charges brought by state prosecutors include assembly and collusion against national security, destruction of property, and "corruption on Earth" - a capital offense under the Islamic Republic's legal code that carries the death penalty and has frequently been condemned by human rights defenders as a tool used to silence dissent.