The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khameneihas announced this Sunday the amnesty and the reduction of sentences of “a significant number” of demonstrators convicted 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. Also exempt are those persons who have not killed or injured individuals or participated in the destruction of public or military property.
The authorities, however, did not report how many of the nearly 20,000 detainees in the protests -according to the NGOs- will benefit from this measure. Iran has lived through protests since the death in police custody in September Mahsa Amini after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic headscarf properly.
This revolt, which called for the end of the Islamic Republic, has been answered with strong repression, since it has caused about 500 dead, and 20,000 detainees. Many of those arrested have been sentenced to prison terms and 17 to hanging. Until now four protesters They have been executed, one 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. The president of Iran has affirmed that the celebrations this year of the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of the last shah aimed at “helping the people to follow the correct path”.
