Iran has aggressively sought to prosecute protesters amid the biggest pushback against the Islamist regime in decades, with courts in and around the capital Tehran sentencing 400 people to prison terms of up to 10 years in the crackdown.
“One hundred and sixty people were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison, 80 people to two to five years and 160 people to up to two years,” said Ali Alghasi-Mehr, Tehran province’s chief justice, according to a report in the The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday.
The harsh sentences come in response to protests that have spread across the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody in September after being arrested by the country’s morality police for failing to wear the right clothes. she covers her head, in violation of Iran’s hardline Islamic laws.
IRAN SHUTS down MORALITY POLICE IN RESPONSE TO PROTESTS: REPORT
Iranians protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the moral police in Tehran.
(The Associated Press)
The Iranian regime has responded by trying to suppress the unrest by flooding the streets with police and making thousands of arrests, and the violence has resulted in the deaths of more than 300 protesters, a number that included at least 40 children, according to the United Nations. Dear.
But there are some signs that protesters were influencing policy after it was reported earlier this month that Iran planned to abolish its controversial morality police force, though laws mandating strict adherence to Islamic law would remain on the books. .
Iranian police arrive to disperse a protest marking the 40 days since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
(AP)
However, the regime has still aggressively tried to punish “rioters”, a term authorities have used to describe protesters.
Reports circulated last month that Iran had sentenced an estimated 15,000 people to death for participating in the protests, though a fact-check by Al Jazeera last month claimed the actual number was much lower than that, and the regime confirmed to the outlet that had given five people the death penalty in cases linked to the protests.
Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs committee of Iran’s National Resistance Council, told Fox News Digital that according to his group’s network inside Iran, “at least 30 protesters have been sentenced to death, but more have been condemned”. of “Moharebeh” (to make war on God), but their sentences, whether execution or not, have not yet been determined.”
Students take to the streets in Iran earlier this month.
(National Council of Resistance of Iran)
Safavi noted that “the execution of the protesters makes it abundantly clear that the mullahs’ regime has failed in its efforts to quell the national uprising of the Iranian people, which has now entered its fourth month, putting the overthrow of the theocracy on the horizon.” ruler. This explains why the regime of the mullahs has resorted to the most heinous crimes in their most medieval forms to strike terror into the public… The end of this medieval regime, which previously seemed inconceivable, has now become inevitable.” .
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But long prison sentences in and around Tehran do not paint a complete picture of the crackdown across the country, and UN human rights experts estimate that more than 14,000 people have been arrested across the country since the crackdown began. protests.
A request for comment from Iran’s UN Mission was not immediately returned.
