Thursday , 28 March 2024

Arrests Reported In Mainly Sunni Iranian City Amid Mass “Amnesty”

Iranwire – As the Iranian authorities are trying to whitewash the illegal arrest of thousands of protesters with an “amnesty,” the security forces are intensifying detentions of activists who are taking to the streets in remote cities, IranWire reports.

IranWire spoke with a resident of Dashti, a predominantly Sunni city in the southern province of Hormuzgan.

He said he was among 16 other people who were temporarily released on bail after being detained for a few days.

“My son and I, along with a large number of fellow citizens, were arrested on October 4 for supporting the protests or attending the gatherings. Some of us, including me, were temporarily released,” he said.

Branch 1 of the General Court in Parsian has issued preliminary verdicts, sentencing the group to one year in prison and 74 lashes each on charges that include “disrupting public order.”

The 16 convicts have been told to hand themselves over to the prison authorities to serve their sentences.

“Most people are relatives and know each other in the cities of Dashti and Parsian. Two of our fellow citizens, Hamid Molaei and Adnan Kamali, were killed by the repressive forces in one night in October,” the resident of Dashti said.

Iran has been swept by protests since the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Tehran’s morality police.

The authorities have cracked down hard on the demonstrations, which pose one of the most serious challenges to the theocracy installed by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Activists say security forces have killed more than 520 people and detained over 19,000 in connection with the protests. After biased trials, around 20 people were handed capital punishment, mostly on non-murder charges. Four of them have been executed so far amid international outrage.

The demonstrations and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in the country’s western Kurdish areas and Sistan and Baluchistan province, home to Iran’s beleaguered Sunni Baluch community.

Earlier this month, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei agreed to pardon “tens of thousands” of prisoners, including defendants who have not received any final verdict.

Under the constitution, the supreme leader has the authority to issue an amnesty at the recommendation of the judiciary, but only defendants who have received a final verdict can be pardoned.

Those inmates who are qualified to be pardoned must pledge in writing that they regret what they have done otherwise, they will not be freed.

Those charged with serious offences such as spying for foreign agents, murder or destruction of state property will not be released.

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