Tehran ‘pardons’ 22,000 protesters. Doubts about the figures

It was announced yesterday by the head of the judiciary, Ejehi, in view of the beginning of Ramadan (holy month of fasting and prayer). So far, activists and NGOs had spoken of almost 20,000 detainees and more than 500 deaths in the clashes. The gap in the numbers confirms doubts about the true extent of the crackdown on dissent in the Islamic Republic.

Tehran () – The Iranian judicial authorities have reportedly “pardoned” 22,000 citizens who in recent months have participated in street demonstrations for the murder of Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died at the hands of the moral police in Tehran. The announcement was made yesterday by the head of the judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, quoted by the official news agency Irna, according to which the decision is part of a broader measure that provides for the release of “at least 82 thousand people”, among they are the ones who “participated in the protests.”

Early last month government media reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had granted a “pardon” to “tens of thousands” of detainees, including some of the many who participated in the suppressed uprising in bloody way A spontaneous and peaceful movement in the streets, with women in the front row, which triggered the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish girl, whose only fault was not wearing the hijab (mandatory veil) correctly, today a symbol of oppression.

The high magistrate did not specify the reference period for the pardon and so far there is no independent confirmation of the veracity of the news. However, he offers for the first time an overview of the far-reaching scope of the government crackdown that followed the protest, rising to figures that until now have never been considered truly reliable. The announcement also reveals another aspect: the Islamic Republic, after months of riots and bloodshed, feels safe enough to speak out and shed some light on an uprising that, for many, is the most serious and participatory since the revolution in 1979. At the same time, the suffocated anger of a large sector of the population persists, overwhelmed by the economic crisis, unemployment, the collapse of the currency and uncertainty about foreign ties, with the reestablishment of sanctions following the suspension of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The pardon granted by Khamenei would be related to the imminent start of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and prayer. According to Ejei, a total of 82,656 prisoners or defendants have benefited from the pardon, including 22,628 who had been arrested during the recent demonstrations. None of them have committed robberies or violent crimes, but what’s interesting about the numbers is that the true scope of the arrests could actually be much higher than the numbers circulating so far. According to data from Human Rights Activists in Iran, in recent months the authorities have detained 19,700 people, and another 530 have lost their lives in clashes with law enforcement or police operations. These figures, especially those that refer to arrests, are already lower than the data on people involved in the demonstrations and released that was released yesterday by the head of the judiciary. “From day one,” says Jasmin Ramsey, deputy director of the US-based NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran, “there has been no transparent count of people arrested or jailed. […] so there is no way to verify how many were actually released today.”