Iran’s Khamenei grants amnesty or sentence reductions to more than 2,000 prisoners
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves amnesty or sentence reductions for 2,108 prisoners, excluding those convicted over recent protests.
Iran’s judiciary announced on Tuesday that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved an amnesty or sentence reductions for 2,108 convicted prisoners, as part of political traditions marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
According to Mizan Online, the judiciary’s official news outlet, the decision was issued in response to a formal request submitted by Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and applies to inmates convicted of a range of offences.
Riot-related convictions excluded
Despite the scale of the amnesty, senior judicial officials stressed that those convicted in what authorities describe as recent “riot-related” cases were fully excluded from the measure.
Deputy Head of the Judiciary Ali Mozaffari said the list did not include individuals convicted over their involvement in the latest unrest, underscoring what he described as a firm red line on such cases.
The decision follows a wave of violent protests that erupted in December over rising living costs, before escalating into broader political demonstrations that peaked in January. Official estimates say more than 3,000 people were killed during the unrest, which Tehran has characterised as “terrorist acts incited from abroad.”
Iranian authorities routinely issue pardons or sentence reductions around major religious and national occasions, though exclusions linked to protest-related convictions have drawn continued scrutiny from rights groups.
