Recently, the so-called “amnesty” of thousands of inmates, including political prisoners by the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, made headlines. While authorities and Tehran’s pundits celebrate this decision as a “humanitarian action” and a “sign of strength,” facts on the ground reveal the opposite: Khamenei’s desperation.
The People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) was the first to announce that at least 30,000 protesters have been detained. This has not been the first time that the MEK’s account for the regime’s crimes. The MEK was the first to announce that authorities killed 1500 protesters during the November 2019 uprising. This number was later confirmed by Reuters and referenced by many international organizations.
Besides, videos from Iran showed the security forces viciously cracking down on protests, killing and imprisoning unarmed protesters. Even though Tehran denied it completely, now the state media acknowledge this fact.
On February 8, while claiming that Khamenei offers clemency to “between 30 to 40 thousand prisoners,” the state-run Royedad 24 wrote: “This year, around 100,000 prisoners were pardoned, which is much more than the last year.” The state-affiliated outlet then reminds the claims of Hassan Nowrozi, the vice-chairman of the judicial and legal commission of the parliament, who underlined in 2021 that there are near “240,000 prisoners, and this number should be 20,000. Prisons are over-capacitated.”
“Therefore, at least 200,000 prisoners were in Iran’s prisons until last year. Thirty thousand prisoners and detainees of the recent protests make up 15% of the total prison population of the country, which is a significant figure,” Roydad 24 added.
Despite the regime’s heavy quash, the nationwide uprising has persisted for the past five months. Besides brutalizing protesters, Khamenei has been nurturing his paranoia of downfall through propaganda and censorship.
“In September, Mehdi Hajian, the spokesman of FARAJA, a.k.a state law enforcement forces, announced that each inmate’s keeping costs around 100 million rials. Suppose the figure of 30,000 detainees during the recent protests is correct. In that case, more than 3 trillion rials per month and 3,6 quadrillion rials per year will be added to the expenses of the prison organization,” Roydad 24 adds.
In other words, keeping detained protesters costs around $79 million a year per the current dollar exchange rate.
While releasing some prisoners clearly put on display the regime’s weakness, it does not mean Tehran has reduced its human rights violation. The world community should maintain and increase pressure on the clerical regime and use this momentum to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the regime’s ongoing human rights violations.
MEK Iran (follow us on Twitter and Facebook), Maryam Rajavi’s on her site, Twitter & Facebook, NCRI (Twitter & Facebook), and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTub