AUTHORITIES in Iran have released a top actress who was arrested last month after expressing solidarity with anti-government protesters.
Taraneh Alidoosti was pictured being greeted by friends outside Tehran’s Evin prison, her hair uncovered.
The 38-year-old star was freed on bail after being accused of “posting inflammatory content”.
She had posted a picture on social media without a headscarf and condemned the first execution of a protester.
Many Iranian actors, musicians and other celebrities have publicly backed the protests against the clerical establishment.
They erupted almost four months ago following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.
Authorities have portrayed the protests as foreign-backed “riots” and responded with lethal force.
So far, at least 516 protesters have been killed, including 70 children, and 19,250 others arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 68 security personnel.
Two protesters were executed last month after being convicted of the vaguely-defined national security charge of “enmity against God”.
Human rights groups condemned their trials as gross miscarriages of justice. They were reportedly tortured into confessing and deprived of access to lawyers of their choosing.
Days before her own arrest on 17 December, Ms Alidoosti had urged people to speak out in response to the execution of the first protester, Mohsen Shekari.
“Every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action is a disgrace to humanity,” she wrote on her Instagram account, which had millions of followers before it was disabled.
In November, she had posed with her hair uncovered, holding a sign saying “Woman, life, freedom” – the main slogan of the protest movement.