Iranian authorities arrested outspoken lawyer Mohsen Borhani for publicly criticizing how the government handled the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian media reported Sunday.

Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old whose arrest in 2022 by Iranian police for allegedly failing to wear her required hijab correctly and subsequent death in custody prompted massive protests. Soon after, calls to overturn Iran’s four-decade Islamic clerical regime began. A UN fact-finding mission concluded that Amini’s death in custody was unlawful and the result of violence, and a separate UN report alleged widespread human rights violations against protestors.

Borhani, also a university professor, criticized the Iranian governments response to the protests on social media during the rallies that led to a security response, including over 22,000 arrests and more than 500 fatalities. He questioned the authority of security forces to use violence to crack down on the protests, in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

In the midst of a purge of academics who supported the protests, Borhani was also fired from his position at Tehran University. He said at the time that the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organisation and a Guardian Council member were among those who had filed a complaint against him. According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency Bohrani had been previously arrested, though they shared no further details about his arrest or his expected jail time.

Borhani’s arrest occurred one day after the election win of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian. After years of protests and sanctions pressuring the Islamic Republic, Pezeshkian has pledged to open up to the West and ease the country’s mandatory headscarf rule.