The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced a move to grant amnesty to 139 individuals previously sentenced to death, in a strategy aimed at easing international and domestic pressure as part of Tehran’s wider struggle to create a perception of legitimacy, experts told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Those 139 individuals were reportedly pardoned by the regime’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, along with close to 2,000 others, ahead of the Shia religious holiday Eid al-Ghadir.
The Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported that detainees convicted of security-related offenses, espionage, actions against Iran’s internal or external security, and crimes threatening public security were not eligible for the pardon.
Iran’s police chief, Ahmadreza Radan, claimed last month that the regime’s security forces had arrested over 6,500 individuals accused of espionage since the war started on February 28. Many of those who demonstrated during the January economic protests and the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests were also convicted of national security offences and would therefore likely not qualify for the amnesty.
IRGC pardons minor offenses to placate the people
Menahem Merhavi, a fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explained to the Post that the regime’s pardons come at a time of precipice for renewed unrest.
Students have begun demonstrating on campus in recent weeks, Iran’s economy has only declined since January, and the regime is “very concerned” that the situation will reach a boiling point “once this agreement is finalized, and the harm to Iran is exposed.”
“On the domestic level, it has to do with the regime’s dire need and understanding that it has a problem of legitimacy; and the need to deal with it, so I think it’s trying to deal with it, trying to better their image domestically,” Merhavi said.
On the international stage, the Islamic regime’s execution spree and mass human rights violations have also created significant issues. Some Members of the European Parliament called for military intervention in January in response to the mass killing of demonstrators, and the EU Parliament banned Iranian diplomats and representatives from its premises. The EU has formally added the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its official terrorism list.
Two separate non-governmental organizations have reported that the Islamic regime has executed the highest number of detainees since 1989, with the figure estimated at around 1,639 people last year alone, according to a report by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (EPCM).
Amnesty International also reported last month that the regime was using wartime conditions as an excuse to repress Iran’s civilian population, suppress dissent, and vilify those who do not immediately fall in line.
“To maintain their grip on power, the authorities have unleashed an all-out assault on people in Iran, targeting anyone who dares to criticize the Islamic Republic, share information about the US or Israeli air strikes or human rights violations with the outside world, or simply attempt to break through what became the longest recorded internet shutdown to communicate with loved ones or access independent information,” Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director of Research, Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Amnesty International, said.
Why pardon people now?
While the damage the regime has done to its reputation has been significant, and was not helped by the unprovoked attacks against its Gulf neighbors, Merhavi suggested that the pardons were part of an attempt to “polish” the regime’s image.
For Ben Sabti, an Iran expert and researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the move by the regime is nothing more than “propaganda,” not dissimilar to the choreographed moves of Khamenei’s father and predecessor, killed by Israel in the Operation Roaring Lion in February.
Sabti, noting that the regime has failed to confirm the identities of those released or identify their crimes, suggested it was likely those who committed minor economic infractions who were pardoned, and in a democratic country, they likely wouldn’t have been imprisoned to begin with. Without publishing the identities of those pardoned, it isn’t even clear that the regime’s own claims and figures are accurate, he added.
Khamenei wants to show himself as a kind leader and the regime as merciful, Sabti explained. “They free a few hundred in every celebration, every festival, and it seems from [the] outside that they are a kind and democratic and merciful regime… but they are taking hostages. They take the hostage, and after that, free him, so they seem kind.”
Rebin Rahmani, a director of the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, told the Post: “From what I understand, these kinds of amnesties in Iran are often announced on significant religious occasions. In many cases, over the years, they have mainly applied to prisoners convicted of ordinary criminal offenses rather than those facing political charges. Because the exclusions are generally based on the type of offense rather than ethnicity or religion, I would be cautious about interpreting the policy itself as primarily creating ethnic or religious divisions.”
Rahmani added, “The main distinction tends to be between ordinary criminal cases and cases categorized as political or similar offenses. As a result, those convicted of ordinary crimes are usually the primary beneficiaries, while individuals facing political charges are often excluded.”