The inaccurate tweet was live on Trudeau’s official Twitter account for nearly 12 hours before it was deleted. It was eventually dropped because it was “informed by initial reports that were incomplete and lacked the necessary context,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement sent to Global News. “(The tweet) was based on reporting serious concerns expressed by international human rights advocates warning of possible future penalties, including the death penalty, to be meted out to thousands of Iranian protesters already in regime custody,” a spokesman said. .
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Story continues below ad However, the tweet did not describe “possible future sentences” but said that death sentences had already been handed down. “Canada condemns the Iranian regime’s barbaric decision to execute nearly 15,000 protesters,” Trudeau’s since-deleted tweet read. “These brave Iranians were fighting for their human rights – and we continue to stand united in support of them and united against the regime’s heinous actions.” Trudeau is not the only person who shared the false information. An image was shared on a popular Instagram meme page – one with a million followers – showing a woman holding an Iranian flag next to the text “Iran sentences 15,000 protesters to death – as a ‘harsh lesson’ for all rebels” . Instagram has since added a link to the post explaining that it was “false” and that “independent auditors say this information has no basis in fact.” 1:56 Iran students killed for demonstration Another version of the post, which has since been removed, was shared by celebrities including actresses Sophie Turner and Viola Davis, according to CNN. Two news outlets, Newsweek and Yahoo Entertainment, also falsely claimed in their reporting that 15,000 protesters had been sentenced to death. Current trend
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Story continues below ad To date, the Iranian regime has sentenced one person to death, and its state news agency PressTV reported that Iranian lawmakers are calling for “stern punishment” of those involved in the protests. “We should not forget the fact that one person has already been sentenced to death and Iranian parliamentarians should not call for the imposition of any death penalty,” the PMO statement said. “Already, dozens of protesters have been killed by the regime’s security forces. Our government continues to unequivocally support the people of Iran and is taking unprecedented action to hold the regime and its forces accountable.” On Monday, Canada called Iran a regime engaged in “terrorism” as well as the systematic and gross violation of human rights. The move, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino said, means tens of thousands of senior members of the Iranian regime — including many members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — will now be “inadmissible to Canada.”
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It is the latest in a series of sanctions that Canada and its allies, including the United Kingdom and the United States, have steadily imposed on Iran in recent months. Story continues below ad Iran has engaged in a brutal crackdown on protesters amid nationwide protests. The protests first erupted over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16 in the custody of the country’s so-called morality police. She was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. Although the protests initially focused on Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, they have since turned into one of the biggest challenges to the ruling clerics since the chaotic years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian authorities announced late last month that they would hold public trials for 1,000 people over the protests that have rocked the country. — with files from The Canadian Press © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
