The supreme leader of Iran has commuted or pardoned the sentences of “tens of thousands” of convicts, including some who were detained during recent anti-government demonstrations.
According to information released in official media sources, the pardons approved on Sunday February 5, by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei included conditions and would not apply to any of the numerous dual nationals detained in Iran.
An Iranian news agency said that those charged with “corruption on earth,” a serious offense for which several protestors were tried and four of whom were put to death, would also not receive pardons.
Both individuals accused of “spying for foreign agencies” and those “affiliated with groups hostile to the Islamic Republic” would not be covered by it.
Iran experienced a wave of unrest after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish was woman, died while under the morality police’s custody in September 2022. She was detained for disobeying Islamic dress codes.
About 20,000 individuals have reportedly been detained in relation to the protests, which the authorities claim were instigated by Iran’s “foreign enemies,” according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
In a letter to Khamenei requesting the pardon, judiciary head Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said: “During recent events, a number of people, especially young people, committed wrong actions and crimes as a result of the indoctrination and propaganda of the enemy.”
Since the hangings started, protests have notably eased down.
“Since the foreign enemies and anti-revolutionary currents’ plans have been foiled, many of these youth now regret their actions,” Mohseni Ejei wrote.
In honor of the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in 1979, Khamenei gave his approval to the pardons. In 1989, Khamenei assumed the role of supreme political and religious authority in the country.
Last Monday, the Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights reported that at least 100 demonstrators in custody could get the death penalty.
The Iranian government has come under fire from Amnesty International for conducting what it dubbed “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.
Author-Roberta Appiah
