Iran government pardons 22,000 protesters months after arrest

Iran announced on Monday that the country's supreme leader has pardoned around 22,000 people arrested in the recent anti-government protests that swept the Islamic Republic.

The statement by Iran's judiciary head, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, offered for the first time a glimpse of the full scope of the government's crackdown that followed the demonstrations over the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the country's morality police.

It also suggests that Iran's theocracy now feels secure enough to admit the scale of the unrest, which represented one of the most-serious challenges to the establishment since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tens of thousands also were detained in the purges that followed the revolution.

However, anger still remains in the country as it struggles through the collapse of the nation’s currency, the rial, economic woes, and uncertainty over its ties to the wider world after the collapse of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Ejehi said a total of 82,656 prisoners and those facing charges had been pardoned. Of those, some 22,000 had been arrested amid the demonstrations, he said.

Those pardoned had not committed theft or violent crimes, he added.

His comments suggest that the true total of those detained in the demonstrations is even greater.

In February, Iran had acknowledged “tens of thousands” had been detained in the protests.

Monday's acknowledgement from Ejehi offered an even higher than what activists had previously cited.

However, there's been no mass release of prisoners documented in recent days by Iranian media reports or activists.

More than 19,700 people have been arrested during the protests, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been tracking the crackdown.

At least 530 people have been killed as authorities violently suppressed demonstrations, the group said.

Iran has not offered a death toll for months.

The announcement also came ahead of next week's celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

On Tuesday, some in Iran also mark nearly 4,000-year-old Persian tradition known as the Festival of Fire that's linked to the Zoroastrian religion.

Hard-liners discourage such celebrations, viewing them as pagan holdovers.

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