Sentences issued for 50 Iranian detainees

Ebrahim Raisi

Chief Deputy of Iran judiciary Ebrahim Raisi announced today that sentences in 50 cases of post-election detainees have been issued.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the tenth presidential elections of Iran in June was disputed by two other candidates for the presidency and their supporters.

Protesters joined mass demonstrations in the first weeks following the election to demand a recount of the votes. The authorities confronted the protesters with severe violence arresting 4000 people which have mostly been released according to the judiciary.

Mehr news agency cited Mr. Raisi saying that the sentences are in their first stages and will need to get through the next steps. He also reported the judiciary has received appeals for some of the earlier sentences issued. He urged his colleagues in the trial and appeals courts to speed up processing the files of the recent detainees.

The first deputy of the judiciary mentioned that Ayatollah Khamenei has announced that questioning the veracity of the elections is a “great crime;” therefore, “those who have proposed the elections were fraudulent and created doubt in the public’s mind have undoubtedly committed a grave crime and naturally will have to answer for the crime they have committed.”

Opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi are the two disputing candidates of the presidential elections who have challenged the outcome of the elections and deny the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s consequent government.

In the past four months, a number of prominent reformist figures have been arrested and put to trial, accused of orchestrating and guiding the street protests following the elections.

Numerous prominent Shiite clerics, political parties and human rights groups have condemned both the form and content of these trials.