Iran seizes assets of 240 dissidents and journalists as protest arrests top 6,000

Iran's judiciary has seized assets belonging to 240 dissidents, journalists and public figures and frozen 182 of their bank accounts, the judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency reported, as Police Chief Ahmadreza Radan announced on Sunday that more than 6,000 people had been arrested over the January protests.

Of the asset seizures, 143 took place in Tehran. Those targeted were accused of "propaganda activities or actions against the country and in favour of hostile governments," according to Mizan.

The agency said some of the assets belonged to journalists working for Persian-language opposition broadcasters Iran International and Manoto, as well as activists and public figures living abroad.

The asset seizures include the case of Sadegh Saeedi-nia, whom Iranian media described as an entrepreneur, whose property was confiscated and who received a custodial sentence in one of the most high-profile proceedings against regime opponents.

The judiciary has also made more than 2,000 inquiries to Iran's Central Bank regarding defendants' accounts and warned that additional seizures and proceedings are under way.

Radan said his forces had arrested three members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled Iranian opposition organisation seeking to overthrow the Tehran regime, in an operation the previous night.

He said MEK members had played a role in what Iranian authorities describe as a coup, the term the Islamic Republic uses for the December-January protests.

"We will not forget the rioters and coup-plotters, we continue to monitor them and take action against them," Radan said.

He also said security forces had prevented a repeat of Chaharshanbe Suri — the Persian fire festival marking the last Wednesday of the year — from being used to trigger further unrest.

"One of the enemy's extensive plans was to use the last Wednesday of the year to create a scenario similar to the incidents (in January), but that did not happen," he said.

Iran has executed at least 532 people since January, according to Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based monitoring group, including at least 29 people in connection with the January protests. The rate has accelerated since the start of the war with the US in late February.

The late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in a US strike on his residence at the start of the war, had been among those who publicly described the protests as a coup attempt.