- Footage also shows photos of women who have died in Iran in a month and features a protest hymn
An Iranian state broadcaster was briefly hacked during its nightly news programme with a message targeting supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as anti-government protests entered their fourth week.
The newscast on Saturday by the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), which comes under the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) corporation, was interrupted by a group that called itself “Edalate Ali”, which roughly translates to “Ali’s Justice.”
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the 9 p.m. newscast of the IRINN was hacked for a few moments by anti-revolutionary elements.
The now-viral clip of the incident shows IRIB/IRINN airing a segment about Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attending a meeting in the southern city of Bushehr, which was interrupted by video of a drawing mask man with thick beard and eyebrows on black background.
The mask video was followed by a screen showing a photo of Khamenei with a target superimposed on his face alongside photos of Nika Shahkarami, Hadis Najafi, Mahsa Amini and Sarina Esmailzadeh – all young women who died in Iran last month . .
Amini, 22, died after being arrested by the vice squad. The other three, including two teenagers, died in the protest movement that has erupted since Amini’s death.
Next to the photos on the screen was a message that read “Join us and rise” and “The blood of our youth flows from your grip”, as well as the social media handles of the hacker group Edaalat -e Ali, which translates to The justice of Ali.
The image stayed on the screen for several seconds.
Edaalat-e Ali appeared to take credit for the hack, posting the clip on his social media account saying, “At the request of the people, we kept our promise and did the unthinkable to liberate Iran.
Nationwide protests gripped Iran for weeks following Amini’s death after she was arrested by government vice squads for not wearing her hijab properly. His death sparked violent clashes between protesters and authorities, leaving dozens dead.
First published in CNN