Judiciary chief: 22,000 arrested during riots pardoned
Iran has pardoned 22,000 people arrested during the recent riots in the country, said the judiciary chief.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made the remark in an address to a meeting of the Judiciary’s High Council on Monday, putting the entire number of the inmates having granted mercy at 82,000, according to mizanonline.ir.
He added the figure is expected to increase.
Of the pardoned arrestees of the riots, Mohseni-Ejei said, some had been convicted and some were waiting for their trials, stressing that a few number of them were in prison, with the majority released on bail.
In addition to the unrest’s arrestees, 60,000 other individuals have also either been pardoned or seen their sentences commuted.
In February, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei pardoned or commuted the sentences of thousands of convicts, including large groups of detainees found guilty of involvement in the recent foreign-backed riots in the country.
Riots erupted in Iran in mid-September when 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini died in a hospital in Tehran, three days after she collapsed at a police station. An investigation later attributed Amini’s death to her pre-existing medical condition, rather than alleged beatings by the police.
Rioters went on a rampage, brutally attacking security officers and causing massive damage to public property. Dozens of people and security personnel were killed in the riots.