Iran’s Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei
granted amnesty and reduced prison sentences on Sunday to a “significant number” of protesters arrested in antigovernment demonstrations, Iranian state media said, highlighting the regime’s shifting tactics after a lethal crackdown that has recently quieted street demonstrations in many parts of the country.
The move, part of a wider amnesty ahead of the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, covers protesters who have asked the government for forgiveness, but it excludes anyone accused of violent crimes, arson or having contact with foreign intelligence services, Iran’s official judiciary news service Mizan reported.
The decision to grant amnesty and cancel sentences reflects the government’s growing confidence that the worst of the protests is over, political analysts and human-rights activists say. Still, it isn’t clear if easing the crackdown will cause a resurgence in large-scale street demonstrations.
“We look at this as a propaganda move,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Oslo-based activist group Iran Human Rights. “It’s not the first time they have done something like this when they are under pressure.”
It is unclear how many people who qualify for the amnesty are protesters and how many are people convicted of other crimes.
The state-run IRNA news agency said in a report in Farsi that Mr. Khamenei “agreed to offer amnesty and reduce the sentences of tens of thousands accused and convicted in the recent incidents.” But on its English-language service, IRNA said the pardons and commuted sentences were for “tens of thousands of convicts, including the arrestees of the recent riots in Iran.”
Mizan said that protesters comprised a “significant number” of those receiving amnesty.
Iranian authorities…
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