Thousands of inmates in Iran have been released or had their sentences reduced thanks to the intervention of the country’s Supreme Leader. According to official media sources, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s pardons authorized on Sunday came with conditions, and none of the many dual nationals being jailed in Iran would be eligible for release. It was stated by the state news agency IRNA that those accused of “corruption on earth” would also not be pardoned.
This was a capital charge levied against several demonstrators, four of whom have already been executed. Others who have been accused of “spying for foreign agencies” or “affiliation with parties hostile to the Islamic Republic” would not be covered by this amnesty. When a young Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, died in the custody of the country’s morality police in September, demonstrations erupted across Iran. For not properly adhering to Islamic clothing standards, the 22-year-old was taken into custody. Protests saw participation from all classes of Iranian society, and represented the most serious challenge to the ruling establishment in Iran since the revolution of 1979. Words like “indoctrination” and “propaganda” Iranian authorities have blamed “foreign adversaries” for inciting the unrest, and the Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that as many as 20,000 people have been jailed as a result. Over 500 people, including 70 children, have been killed, according to human rights organizations. According to the Iranian judicial system, at least four persons have been hanged. In the past months, Iran has failed to provide a dead toll. Justiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei wrote to Khamenei pleading for clemency, saying, “During recent events, a number of people, especially young people, did improper actions and crimes as a result of the indoctrination and propaganda of the enemy.”
Since the hangings began, protests have subsided significantly. Many of these youth now have second thoughts, Ejei observed, “because the foreign adversaries’ and anti-revolutionary currents’ schemes have been foiled.” Khamenei gave his blessing for the amnesty to commemorate the Islamic revolution’s anniversary in 1979. In 1989, Khamenei became the political and religious head of Iran. Iran Human Rights, an organization based in Norway, reported last week that 100 protestors in custody were being considered for execution. In response to the public revolt that has rocked Iran, Amnesty International has condemned what it has called “fake trials aimed to scare people engaging in the protest.”
