Last week Iranian state media was full of images of Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pardoning or commuting the sentences of “tens of thousands” of prisoners. Amnesties have been part of the annual commemoration of the IRI’s coming to power in February 1979.
But this year these pardons are coming as tens of thousands of Iranians have risen up powerfully against the Islamic Republic with many calling for its downfall. The regime has responded barbarically, murdering some 528, including more than 70 children, arresting over 19,700, and carrying out depraved torture in its dungeons, according to HRANA News (February 11). This mass violence points to how deeply the uprising in Iran triggered by the September 16, 2022 murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini has shaken the regime, and its great necessity to crush it.
At the same time, the regime also faces tremendous necessity to attempt to shore up its legitimacy in the face of the growing gulf between it and large sections of the population and waves of international revulsion at its murderous rule.
So the pardons doled out and the recent release of some political prisoners do not reflect any change of heart or fundamental reform by this medieval theocracy. They reflect a mix of some concessions to these pressures as well as strings-attached “pardons” made up of large doses of propaganda, the release of some prisoners accused of minor crimes, and the regime's ongoing efforts to break the spirits of the prisoners, particular high-profile prisoners.
Judiciary leader Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei explained:
During recent events, some, especially young people, have committed crimes and misbehaved due to enemy propaganda and indoctrination, causing trouble for themselves and their families. But now that the schemes of foreign enemies, counterrevolutionary groups and those against the population are revealed, many of them express their regret and ask for forgiveness.1
The Center for Human Rights in Iran noted:
[M]any protesters will not be eligible for release because they have been accused of high crimes, such as “corruption on earth,” “waging war [on God],” “rebellion,” “spying for foreigners,” “murder,” “destruction and arson against state, military and public buildings” and “membership in organizations fighting against the state.” Foreign nationals and those with previous criminal records, or those facing private complaints, will also not qualify.
As deputy head of the judiciary, Sadegh Rahimi, stated on February 5, 2023:
Amnesty is given after perpetrators express disgust with their past actions and pledge not to repeat them in the future otherwise future offenses will be punished more severely. (emphasis added)2
Similar apologies and promises are often coerced and filmed, often having a demoralizing and chilling effect on the prisoner as well as the community.
Shahriar Shams, a former prisoner, said one of his friends who is still behind bars told him if the authorities free them unconditionally, it would be fine, but if they demand any letter of remorse “we will not give them anything. We should be the ones to pardon them.”3
The very wording of many of the regime’s “pardons” contains threats that hang over both the released and locked-up prisoners. The Washington Post interviewed former prisoners, doctors, and therapists:4
Four months into the uprising, many Iranians remain committed to the movement, which began in September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s hated “morality police.” But the mass detentions have taken a heavy physical and psychological toll on the people cycling through prison, and have scared some of them and their families into silence, according to interviews with seven Iranians recently let out of jail, five local and international rights groups, as well as Iranian doctors and lawyers in direct contact with people arrested after supporting the protests….
The engineer [interviewed by Washington Post] was eventually released on bail pending trial, but found little relief back home…. He remains haunted by the psychological abuse he endured, and the violence he saw inflicted on others: “You bastards have gotten too spoiled,” he recalled his interrogators saying. “We should pull out your testicles and hang you from your behind so you learn to behave.”
However, the effect on the uprising is contradictory.
A 30-year-old law school graduate in Tehran, who spent 26 days locked up in October, observed that the arrests and executions “have scared many people and led to retreat, especially among the ones with less experience in activism.” But others are undeterred. “Despite the widespread repression and arrest, we try to continue protesting and fighting in different ways,” the law graduate continued.
Several Women Political Prisoners and Other Dissidents Released
“A significant number of political prisoners were released [recently],” according to Akhbar-Rooz news. “Among the freed women prisoners, the names of Fariba Asadi, Shohreh Hosseini, Gelareh Abbasi, Zahra Safaei, Parastoo Moeini, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Niloufar Shakri, and Saba Kordafshari stand out.5 The reports also indicate the release of Mohammad Habibi, a well-known face of the country's teachers.”
Several other dissident leaders were released from other prisons. Farhad Meysami, whose emaciated body shocked the world after a five-month hunger strike, was released on bail on February 10, in the fourth year of his five-year sentence; two days earlier, human rights lawyer Nasrin Soutoudeh (on medical furlough from Evin Prison) highlighted his case in her interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah was released from Iran’s Evin Prison, according to a February 10 statement from France's foreign ministry. Adelkhah had been arrested on a 2019 visit to Iran on bogus charges of conspiring against the regime and propaganda against the state. It is not clear yet whether her rights to leave Iran have been restored.
These early releases are not, it seems, specifically tied to Khamenei’s pardon, although their timing may serve a propaganda purpose for the regime.
Baluchistan: Rebellion and Repression Continue to Roil
Overall in Iran, there has been an ebb in large mass demonstrations, but mass hatred of the Islamic Republic and its barbaric crimes continues to run very deep. Instead, social media from inside Iran has been highlighting tactics such as banner drops, graffiti, and the burning and defacing of regime banners and propaganda posters.
Even so, there were scattered protests in Iran leading into the regime’s February 11 anniversary celebrations (where they claim they were able to turn out tens of thousands of supporters). In early February, protesters in Abadan in southwest Iran destroyed a statue of a Basij militiaman, which had recently been installed. There were reportedly protests in Sanandaj on the anniversary and the day before a group of teachers’ organizations in Kurdistan protested the situation of Sunni clerics arrested for supporting popular protests. On the anniversary itself, state TV was hacked and in Tehran people chanted “Down with the Islamic Republic” from their houses and rooftops.
Around the world, a complex mix of tens of thousands of Iranians in the diaspora rallied and marched for an end to the Islamic Republic.6
The notable exceptions to the lull in street protests have been Sistan-Baluchistan province and, to a lesser extent, Kurdistan.
Friday, February 10, was the 19th consecutive week of marches by thousands of people, including women, every Friday in Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, following the horrific massacre on September 20 of about 100 people in and outside the prayer area of the main mosque, outside of which a protest was to be held. Baluchistan is the poorest region of Iran and Pakistan, and its people are extremely oppressed for their language, culture, and majority Sunni Muslim religion (the Islamic Republic is a fundamentalist theocracy based on Shi’a Islam).7
Over the past several months the IRI has focused considerable firepower in Baluchistan, setting up military checkpoints; arresting and forcibly disappearing disproportionately large numbers, and sentencing numerous Baluchi youth to execution. Because many thousands of Baluchis have been denied identification documents, they are even more vulnerable than people elsewhere in Iran to simply disappearing into a security black hole after arrest, leaving their families and friends searching desperately for months or forever.
The Haalvsh news organization published a report (in Farsi) documenting the systematic rape of women protesters in Baluchistan detention centers.
Another heartbreaking news report was the attempted suicide of 16-year-old Benyamin Kokhan after severe torture and sexual violence at the Zahedan Correctional and “Education” Center where he and three other Baluchi teens were forced to confess to shooting at patrol cars. There have been several other reports of Baluchi prisoners committing suicide after their release, due to their trauma from severe torture, threats and rape.
In the face of this systematic and horrific oppression and threats, it is all the more amazing that thousands of Baluchis continue to protest week after week in Zahedan and other cities in Baluchistan, typically raising slogans that range from “Woman. Life. Freedom” to “Death to Khamenei! Death to the Basiji [paramilitaries]!”, “Death to oppressors, whether Shah or Mullah!” and “Free Political Prisoners.”