DUBAI (RockedBuzz via Reuters) – Iran’s supreme leader has pardoned “tens of thousands” of prisoners, including some arrested during recent anti-government protests, state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, after a deadly state crackdown helped quell nationwide unrest.
However, the pardon approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came with one condition, according to details announced in state media reports, according to which the measure would not apply to any of the many dual nationals detained in Iran.
State-run news agency IRNA said those accused of “corruption on earth” – a capital charge against some protesters, four of whom were executed – would also not be pardoned.
Nor would it apply to those accused of “espionage for foreign agencies” or those “affiliated with groups hostile to the Islamic Republic,” state media said.
Protests have engulfed Iran following the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in the custody of the country’s morality police last September. Iranians from all walks of life took part, marking one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
According to activist news agency HRANA, some 20,000 people have been arrested in connection with the protests, which authorities have accused of fomenting Iran’s foreign enemies.
Rights groups say more than 500 people have been killed in the crackdown, including 70 minors. At least four people were hanged, according to the Iranian judiciary.
In a letter to Khamenei asking for a pardon, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said, “During recent events, a number of people, especially young people, have committed wrong actions and crimes as a result of enemy indoctrination and propaganda. .
The protests have slowed considerably since the beginning of the hangings.
“Since the plans of foreign enemies and anti-revolutionary currents have been thwarted, many of these young men now regret their actions,” Ejei wrote.
Khamenei approved pardons in honor of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
It would not apply to those who “are accused of spying for foreign agencies, have direct contact with foreign agents, have committed manslaughter and willful injury, (and) have committed destruction and arson of state property.”
“Of course, those who do not express regret for their activities and give written commitments not to repeat such activities will not be forgiven,” Deputy Judiciary Chief Sadeq Rahimi said, according to state media.
Norway-based group Iran Human Rights said this week that at least 100 detained protesters faced possible death sentences.
Amnesty International has criticized the Iranian authorities for what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate those who participate in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Toby Chopra and Raissa Kasolowsky)
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