Tehran, Iran - An Iranian court has demanded that the US pay $22 billion for allegedly providing support for mass protests in 2022, a judiciary spokesman said Tuesday.

Nationwide protests broke out in September of that year following the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurd Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

"The traces of the United States are evident in many crimes committed in Iran, including during the sinister events of autumn 2022," judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said at a weekly conference.

"The US government has been ordered by a Tehran court to pay more than $22 billion for providing material and moral support to the 2022 rioters."

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Amini's death triggered months of unrest, with hundreds of people, including dozens of security personnel, killed.

Thousands were arrested and dozens were sentenced to death as authorities moved to quell what they branded foreign-instigated "riots."

Jahangir accused the US and Israel of fomenting and "instrumentalizing tensions" in Iran at the time, without elaborating.

"These actions have resulted in the death of innocent people and considerable material damage, both private and public," he said.

In October 2022, Washington announced new sanctions against at least 10 Iranian officials over the response to the protests, and in 2024 it sanctioned several more accused of human rights abuses during the unrest, according to statements by the US Treasury.

Since the protests, which gave rise to a movement dubbed Woman, Life, Freedom, women in Iran have been increasingly flouting the dress code requiring them to cover their neck and head, which became compulsory after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented and unprovoked attack on Iran, triggering a 12-day war during which the US briefly joined in with strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites.

Iranian officials have said the attack was meant to sow unrest and bring people into the streets to overthrow the government in the Islamic republic.