Nobel laureate accuses Iran of using blackout to conceal mass killing

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has accused Iranian authorities of imposing an organized communications blackout to conceal mass killings, urging immediate global intervention, Iran International reports.

“Iran has fallen into an organized silence,” Ebadi wrote on Instagram. “Cutting the internet, paralyzing communications, intimidating witnesses and shutting down media means the government wants to carry out the killing in silence and then erase its traces.”

Ebadi cited reporting from Iran International, which concluded after a multi-stage review of field and medical data, accounts from families and witnesses, and information from sources close to senior security and government bodies, that at least 12,000 people were killed over two consecutive nights on January 8 and 9.

She emphasized that the concern was not only the scale of the deaths but also what she described as a deliberate pattern of violence. “This is organized killing, with direct fire, under the cover of an internet shutdown,” she wrote.

Ebadi called for the immediate restoration of internet access, an independent international investigation, and the documentation and prosecution of those responsible for the violence.

By Vafa Guliyeva