Status: 06.03.2023 10:01 a.m
The Iranian regime had already announced this step in February: 80,000 prisoners are said to have been pardoned. State media reports. However, there were strict requirements for this.
Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pardoned more than 80,000 prisoners, according to state media. This was reported by the state news agency IRNA, citing Justice Chief Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Edschehi.
The pardons were announced in February, just before the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Similar amnesties were repeated around the anniversary. Among the pardoned are said to be numerous people who were imprisoned during the recent wave of protests. The numbers cannot be checked.
media in Iran
According to the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders, the Iranian state media and the media in Iran in general are subject to systematic state control. State media therefore report primarily in the interests of the regime.
Critical media coverage is often censored. The information disseminated by the state media cannot always be independently verified.
Prominent artists, activists and human rights activists have recently been released. The pardons were subject to strict conditions. Among other things, no prisoners who are accused of espionage will be forgiven. Murder, damage or arson to government or military facilities also preclude clemency.
Pardons as a possible diversionary maneuver
The amnesties are a red herring after political and clerical leadership came under pressure, critics said. They also complained that an indictment was required for a pardon. If this is not the case, the detainees would have to incriminate themselves, criticized human rights activists.
The latest wave of protests in the fall plunged Iran’s leadership into the worst crisis in decades. The trigger was the death of the Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody. The 22-year-old was arrested about six months ago for violating Islamic dress codes. More than 500 demonstrators were killed during the protests, and around 20,000 were imprisoned according to estimates by human rights activists.