Iran’s judiciary spokesman Massoud Setaeishi says more than a thousand people have been indicted in connection with the country’s recent ‘riots’.
The protests, which erupted after the death of a young girl, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of morality police on September 16, have been the biggest challenge facing the country’s rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The head of the judiciary, Ghulam Hossein Mohsen Ejei, yesterday announced his support for the use of the death penalty against protesters.
According to Iran’s official news agency, three protesters appeared before the Revolutionary Court in Tehran and were charged with sabotaging public funds by setting fires, disturbing public order, assembly, collusion and attacking the regime.
A lawyer for one of the defendants said his client burned tires on a highway that were not considered public money.
The commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran, Colonel Hassan Hasanzade, warned the protesters that they would be dealt with harshly.
Hasanzade said Revolutionary Guards troops and police had detained 14 people in connection with the killing of a leading member of the Besij forces in west Tehran.
The 277 conservative lawmakers in Iran’s parliament have called on the judiciary to be tough on protesters.
“We demand that the judiciary take a tough stance against the perpetrators of these crimes and all those who aided the crimes and incited the rioters,” the statement said, Reuters reported.
“Preserving order is more important than preserving the soul of the expected Mahdi,” conservative lawmaker Hossein Jalali said, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA).
The Human Rights Activists Agency of Iran (HRANA) reported that the death toll since the outbreak of the protests has reached 319.
The agency added that 14,823 people have been detained in 136 regions and 135 universities that witnessed the protests.
