Iran acknowledges ‘tens of thousands’ detained in protests

Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday reportedly ordered amnesty or reduced prison sentences for “tens of thousands” of people detained amid nationwide anti-government protests rocking the country, acknowledging for the first time the scale of the crackdown.

The decree by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, part of the supreme leader’s annual pardoning ahead of the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, comes as authorities have yet to say how many people have been detained in the demonstrations.

More than 19,600 people have been arrested during the protests, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that tracks the crackdown. At least 527 people were killed as authorities cracked down on the demonstrations with violence, the group said. Iran has not released a death toll for months. It has executed at least four people detained amid protests after the internationally criticized trial.

State media offered a list of warnings about the order, meaning people with ties abroad or facing international spying charges would not be eligible:

• The measure does not apply to people accused of spying for foreign agencies or having direct contact with foreign agents, state news agency IRNA said.
• Those “affiliated with groups hostile to the Islamic Republic” are also excluded, the agency said.
• It will not apply to some dual nationals held in Iran.
• Those accused of “earthly corruption” – capital charges punishable by death – will not be forgiven.
• The measure will not apply to those facing charges of murder and injury and destruction and burning of state property.
• “Of course, those who do not express remorse for their activities and give a written commitment not to repeat these activities, will not be pardoned,” said vice president of the court Sadeq Rahimi, state media reported.

State media reports on the decree did not give details of the decision by Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran. However, prisons and detention facilities have become overcrowded in the country after years of protests over economic and other issues.

Authorities also did not mention anyone who has been pardoned or is looking at shorter sentences. However, state television for example called the demonstrations “foreign-backed riots,” rather than anger at home over the September death of Masha Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman who was detained by the state’s morality police.

Anger has also spread over the collapse of the Iranian rial against the US dollar, as well as Tehran’s support for Russia with bomb-carrying drones during the war in Ukraine.

All this is happening because the Iran nuclear deal has collapsed and Teheran has enough enriched uranium to potentially build “several” atomic bombs if it chooses, the UN nuclear envoy has said. The shadow war between Iran and Israel has descended into chaos, with Tehran blaming Israel for a drone attack on a military workshop in Isfahan last week as well.

Call for a national referendum

Meanwhile, Iran’s long-detained opposition leader has called for a national referendum on whether to write a new constitution for the Islamic Republic.

Mir Hossein Mousavi’s call, posted last Saturday by the opposition website Kaleme, includes him saying that he does not believe that the current Iranian system gives the final decision to the supreme leader to work again. He also called for the formation of a “real representative” constitutional assembly to write a new constitution.

It is unlikely that the Iranian theocracy will heed the call of an 80-year-old politician. He and his wife have been under house arrest for years after losing the presidential election in 2009 sparking widespread Green Movement protests that were also suppressed by security forces. However, he himself has supported and served under the Iranian theocracy for decades.

In 2019, Mousavi compared Khamenei to former shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whose government saw the army shoot protesters in events that sparked the Islamic Revolution.