Iran will offer no leniency to “rioters,” though the public has a right to demonstrate, the head of the judiciary said, following more than a week of protests.
The demonstrations began last Sunday in Tehran when shopkeepers staged a strike over high prices and economic stagnation, but they have since spread to other regions and expanded to include political demands.
“I instruct the attorney general and prosecutors across the country to act in accordance with the law and with resolve against the rioters and those who support them… and to show no leniency or indulgence,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
He added that Iran “listens to the protesters and their criticism, and distinguishes between them and rioters”.
Protests have taken place in 25 out of Iran’s 31 provinces and affected, to varying degrees, at least 45 different cities, most of them small or medium-sized and concentrated in the west, according to an AFP tally based on official statements and media reports.
At least 12 people have been killed since December 30 in localised clashes, including members of the security forces, according to a tally based on official announcements, and there have been media reports of episodes of property damage in the west.
