Arrested niece of Iran's leader calls on nations to cut ties with regime

A niece of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called on foreign governments to cut all links with Tehran's "murderous and child-killing" regime in a video posted online two days after she was arrested.

- Angelique Chrisafis & Patrick Wintour

The video of a statement by Farideh Moradkhani, a well-known rights activist, has been circulating online after it was shared on Friday by her brother living in France, Mahmoud Moradkhani. He said his sister had been arrested on Wednesday after going to a prosecutor's office following a summons.

In the video, Farideh Moradkhani condemned the "clear and obvious oppression" Iranians have been subjected to, and criticised the international community's inaction.

"This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any law or rule except force and maintaining its power in any way possible," she said in the video.

She complained that the sanctions imposed against the regime over its crackdown were "laughable" and said Iranians had been left "alone" in their fight for freedom.

It was not clear when the video had been recorded.

Farideh Moradkhani is an engineer who comes from a branch of Ayatollah Khamenei's family that has a record of opposition to Iran's clerical leadership, and has been jailed previously in the country.

Iran has been shaken by more than 10 weeks of protests that have spread across the country after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested by the morality police for supposedly wearing her hijab inappropriately. The Iranian authorities said their inquiry showed she died from natural causes due to a pre-existing condition, but her family allege she was beaten.