Iran’s hardline judiciary chief has personally interrogated protesters arrested in a crackdown that has sparked an international outcry, amplifying fears among rights groups about the use of “forced confessions” to instil fear in society.On Thursday, state television showed Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, who has spent his career at the heart of the Islamic republic’s legal apparatus and has been sanctioned by both the European Union and United States, quizzing several people the authorities accuse of being “rioters”.It aired footage of the former intelligence minister and top Tehran prosecutor interrogating two detained women, their faces blurred, both of whom broke down in tears while questioned.The day earlier, he had spent five hours inside one of the prisons of Tehran to examine the cases of prisoners arrested in the protests, state television said, showing him interrogating some detainees.According to rights groups, state television has broadcast dozens such “confessions” of individuals accused of attacks on security forces and other acts of violence in the demonstrations.”State media began airing the forced confessions of protesters within days of the outbreak of protests,” said Norway-based Iran Human Rights.”Confessions that were obtained under coercion and torture being aired prior to legal proceedings violate the right of defendants to be presumed innocent until proven guilty,” it added.In another example, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said two teenage girls arrested in the central city of Isfahan were shown in “forced confessions” saying they received money from an individual to participate in street protests.The use of such alleged admissions comes against the backdrop of a crackdown that rights group say has left thousands dead in rallies that have openly challenged the authority of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.- ‘Work quickly’ -In the latest footage, Ejei was shown seated in a room flanked by other officials, beneath a double picture of Khamenei and revolutionary founder Ruhollah Khomeini. The detainee sat in a chair opposite.One woman, accused of sending a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “I’ve done something that even I can’t forgive myself for.””For what… to who,” pressed Ejei, speaking softly while clasping his hands.Another woman is accused of dropping concrete blocks on security forces in Tehran from a balcony. “I don’t know what happened, why I did something so foolish,” she said, after Ejei pressed her by asking, “What was the day?” and “How did you know they were officers?”No further evidence of their alleged involvement was shown.US-based group United Against Nuclear Iran in 2024 described Ejei, who has vowed fast-track trials for those arrested, as a “ruthless enforcer of the Islamic republic with no regard for human rights”.Opposition groups also accuse him of involvement in the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners in the Islamic republic.Media freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said he has “journalists’ blood on his hands”, recalling that Ejei in 2004 even bit a journalist on the shoulder during a debate. “If a person burned someone, beheaded someone and set them on fire then we must do our work quickly,” Ejei said on Wednesday.With any delays, “it wouldn’t have the same effect,” he said.

While Russia and China are ready to back protest-rocked Iran under threat by US President Donald Trump, that support would diminish in the face of US military action, experts told AFP.Iran is a significant ally to the two nuclear powers, providing drones to Russia and oil to China. But analysts told AFP the two superpowers would only offer diplomatic and economic aid to Tehran, to avoid a showdown with Washington.”China and Russia don’t want to go head-to-head with the US over Iran,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy expert for the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.Tehran, despite its best efforts over decades, has failed to establish a formal alliance with Moscow and Beijing, she noted.If the United States carried out strikes on Iran, “both the Chinese and the Russians will prioritise their bilateral relationship with Washington”, Geranmayeh said.China has to maintain a “delicate” rapprochement with the Trump administration, she argued, while Russia wants to keep the United States involved in talks on ending the war in Ukraine. “They both have much higher priorities than Iran.”- Ukraine before Iran -Despite their close ties, “Russia-Iranian treaties don’t include military support” — only political, diplomatic and economic aid, Russian analyst Sergei Markov told AFP.Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said Moscow would do whatever it could “to keep the regime afloat”. But “Russia’s options are very limited,” he added.Faced with its own economic crisis, “Russia cannot become a giant market for Iranian products” nor can it provide “a lavish loan”, Gabuev said. Nikita Smagin, a specialist in Russia-Iran relations, said that in the event of US strikes, Russia could do “almost nothing”.”They don’t want to risk military confrontation with other great powers like the US — but at the same time, they’re ready to send weaponry to Iran,” he said. “Using Iran as a bargaining asset is a normal thing for Russia,” Smagin said of the longer-term strategy, at a time when Moscow is also negotiating with Washington on Ukraine.Markov agreed. “The Ukrainian crisis is much more important for Russia than the Iranian crisis,” he argued.- Chinese restraint -China is also ready to help Tehran “economically, technologically, militarily and politically” as it confronts non-military US actions such as trade pressure and cyberattacks, Hua Po, a Beijing-based independent political observer, told AFP.If the United States launched strikes, China “would strengthen its economic ties with Iran and help it militarise in order to contribute to bogging the United States down in a war in the Middle East,” he added.Until now, China has been cautious and expressed itself “with restraint”, weighing the stakes of oil and regional stability, said Iran-China relations researcher Theo Nencini of Sciences Po Grenoble. “China is benefiting from a weakened Iran, which allows it to secure low-cost oil… and to acquire a sizeable geopolitical partner,” he said. However, he added: “I find it hard to see them engaging in a showdown with the Americans over Iran.”Beijing would likely issue condemnations, but not retaliate, he said.Hua said the Iran crisis was unlikely to have an impact on China-US relations overall.”The Iranian question isn’t at the heart of relations between the two countries,” he argued.”Neither will sever ties with the other over Iran.”