The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khameneiannounced this Sunday the amnesty and reduced sentences for “a significant number” of convicted protesters in the protests that have shaken the country in recent months, on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The amnesty will apply to those who have not spied for foreign powers or had contacts with intelligence services of other countries; killed or injured individuals or participated in the destruction of public or military propertyreported Mizannews agency of the Judiciary.
The authorities, however, They did not report how many of the nearly 20,000 detainees in the protests -according to reports from foreign NGOs- will benefit from this measure.
Iran has seen protests since the death in police custody in September of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for not wearing the Islamic headscarf properly.
The authorities have responded to the revolt led by young people calling for the end of the Islamic Republic with a strong repression what has caused about 500 dead, and 20,000 detaineesof which several hundred have been sentenced to prison terms and 17 to hanging.
Khamenei accepted the proposal made by the head of the Judiciary, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei, who explained to him by letter that “a notable number of these inmates regret their crimes and have asked for forgiveness after the disclosure of the plots hatched by foreign enemies and the anti-revolutionary and anti-popular currents”.
The Iranian regime, although it has recognized specific excesses in the repression of the protests, They attribute the demonstrations to the intervention of “rioters”, many of them in the pay of “foreign powers”.
The protests have so far resulted in between 481 and 522 deathsincluding 68 heads of the country’s security forces, according to NGOs specialized in monitoring the crisis.
According to the NGO Hrana, a total of approximately 19,600 people have been detained since the outbreak of the protests, of which 713 have already been sentenced by an Iranian court. At least four people have been executed and 109 are threatened with the possibility of ending up on death row.
Until now four protesters have been executedone of them in public, which has caused the protests to have lost strength significantly.
Pardoning prisoners is a common practice on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which is commemorated on February 11, and in addition to those convicted of the protests, an amnesty has been announced for “tens of thousands” of prisoners.
The president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, affirmed that the celebrations this year of the 44th anniversary of the overthrow of the last shah aimed at “helping the people to follow the correct path.”
(With information from EFE and Europa Press)
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Source-www.infobae.com