At least 29 people have died in the ongoing protests in Iran, activists said on Monday as the demonstrations entered their second week.
The US-based human rights network HRANA reported that more than 1,200 people have been arrested during the nationwide demonstrations against the authoritarian state leadership.
Among the dead are said to be two members of the security forces.
According to the activists, protest rallies have taken place in at least 88 cities in recent days. Demonstrations were reportedly held nationwide in 27 of the 31 provinces.
After the security forces responded with violence, especially in rural areas, the demonstrations once again reached metropolises such as Tehran and Mashhad.
The trigger for the protests was a shock on the Iranian foreign exchange market more than a week ago, which spontaneously drove angry traders onto the streets of Tehran.
However, the demonstrations quickly turned into political protests, which, as in the past, are being pursued with severity by the state authorities.
According to HRANA, students have joined the protests at at least 17 universities nationwide.
On Monday evening, there were violent arrests on the campus of the university in Birjand, the capital of South Khorasan Province, as reported by the well-known university newsletter Amirkabir.
Earlier on Monday, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic announced that it would proceed without leniency.
"The rioters should know that, while leniency was shown in earlier phases, there will be no more concessions," Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said, according to the Mizan judicial portal.
He pointed to expressions of solidarity with the protesters from the US and Israeli governments, which he called the "main enemies" of the people.
Shortly after the protests broke out last week, Iran's government signalled its willingness to engage with the demonstrators, with moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian promising reforms.
Those promises did not quell the unrest. Many young demonstrators vehemently reject the Iranian regime as a whole.
Mohseni Ejei reportedly said he was instructing the attorney general and prosecutors to act "with determination against the riots" and against those who "provide equipment and resources to the rioters."
US President Donald Trump on Sunday warned Iran it would get "hit very hard" if more protesters die during the unrest that has rocked the country over the past week.
"We're watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
