Holidays are occasions for gentleness and mercy, and so it is in Iran. On the occasion of the approaching anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, religious leader Ali Khamenei pardoned tens of thousands of prisoners, state television reported on Sunday, including those imprisoned in connection with the protests that had been going on for months. However, independent Iran experts doubt that this is a special gesture of charity. As of Monday, neither Amnesty International nor Reporters Without Borders were aware of cases of demonstrators being pardoned or planned pardons.
According to the state-affiliated IRNA news agency, the pardons are based on a proposal by Iran’s judiciary chief Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Edschehi. They should include reduced detention and amnesties and, in principle, also apply to prisoners who were arrested in the wake of the recent protests.
However, Irna reports, certain offenses represent an exclusion criterion. Anyone who is accused of espionage or murder, for example, is excluded from a clemency sentence. The same applies to damaging or setting fire to government or military facilities.
This is one of the reasons why human rights organizations doubt that the pardons are a change of heart on the part of the regime. “Critical journalists are often in prison for alleged espionage,” says Christopher Resch from Reporters Without Borders.
“On the anniversary, the regime is always generous”
In the event of arrests, law enforcement would gain access to cell phones and laptops and demand passwords for online services. A few calls abroad are enough to suspect espionage. Dieter Karg from Amnesty International Germany also doubts that the pardons indicate that Iran’s political leadership is giving in. “On the anniversary, the regime is always generous,” he says.
February 11 marks the tenth day after Iran’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini arrived in the capital, Tehran. Khomeini returned to his homeland in the spring of 1979 after years in exile in Paris to lead the revolution against the ruling Shah monarchy and found today’s Islamic Republic. In 1989 Ali Khamenei assumed his role as supreme spiritual authority and the function of head of state.
Prisoners are repeatedly pardoned on this occasion, says Karg, “but rarely political prisoners.” This year’s pardon would therefore be more routine. He also considers the stated number of pardoned to be unrealistic. Perhaps the regime hopes that the announcement will ease the situation. This is supported by the communication of the pardons by public authorities. Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary-general of the “Supreme Council of Human Rights,” wrote in a tweet: “Such an Islamic and humanitarian act exemplifies the leniency and popularity of the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The protest movement began with the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody. The image is said to show the procession of people heading to her grave in Iran’s Kurdish province on the 40th day after her death.
(Photo: UGC/AFP)
In September last year, the death of 22-year-old Kurd Jina “Mahsa” Amini triggered protests across the country. Amini was arrested by the so-called vice police in Tehran for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women in Iran. She collapsed at the station and died three days later in a clinic. As a result of injuries from police beatings, many Iranians believe.
Tehran denies this and is taking extreme action against the demonstrators. Especially in Kurdistan in the northwest of the country and other regions where minorities live. According to human rights activists, more than 500 protesters have been killed and around 20,000 arrested. Several of them have been sentenced to death, and some of the sentences have already been carried out.
Detainees report torture and forced confessions
Human rights organizations also criticize the degrading conditions in Iranian prisons. In the course of joint research with NDR and WDR, more than a dozen Iranians who were arrested after protests reported abuse and torture to SZ. They were beaten, whipped and shocked with electric batons. She would have had to stay in cold and overcrowded cells, sometimes without being allowed to sleep. They also wanted to force her to sign confessions. Review of the allegations suggests that the violence is systematic.
Neither Amnesty International nor Reporters Without Borders are aware of any demonstrators who have been pardoned or who are planning to do so.