Iran supreme leader’s niece calls on governments to cut ties with ‘murderous and child-killing regime’

The niece of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has called on foreign governments to cut all ties with Tehran’s “murderous and child-killing regime”.

Farideh Moradkhani, a well-known rights activist, made the comments in a video posted online two days after she was arrested in Iran.

The authorities in Iran have cracked down violently on protests that sprang up across the country over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, in police custody after she was arrested for breaking strict hijab rules.

Ms Moradkhani’s video was shared by her brother Mahmoud Moradkhani, who is based in France, on Friday.

He said she was arrested after she was summoned to a prosecutor’s office.

In the video, she says: “Oh free people, be with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime.

“This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any rules except force and maintaining power.”

She adds: “Now is the time for all free and democratic countries to recall their representatives from Iran as a symbolic gesture and to expel the representatives of this brutal regime from their countries.”

More than 450 protesters have been killed in two months of nationwide unrest after Ms Amini’s death, according to HRANA, an activist news agency.

At least 58 children, some reportedly as young as eight, have been killed.

Sixty members of the security forces had been killed and 18,173 protesters detained, according to the HRANA.

Last week, the UN agreed on a new investigative mission to look into Iran’s crackdown on the anti-government protests.

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