On the Occasion of Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Ghadir:

Leader Grants Clemency to 2,135 Inmates

Date: 05 August 2020 - 22:04

News ID: ۸۱۴۷۲

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Wednesday pardoned or commuted the sentences of a large number of Iranian prisoners.
The Leader agreed to a request by Iran’s Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi to pardon or reduce the sentences of as many as 2,135 inmates eligible for clemency.
Ayatollah Khamenei issued the approval on the occasion of Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), and Eid al-Ghadir, two hugely significant Muslim festivities.
The prisoners pardoned had had their verdicts issued at courts of common pleas and Islamic Revolution tribunals, the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces, and the State Discretionary Punishment Organization.
The Leader regularly issues such verdicts on the occasion of religious festivities.
The 10th day of the lunar Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah marks Eid al-Adha, which is celebrated at the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
Eid al-Ghadeer, which marks the occasion of the appointment by Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) of Imam Ali (AS) as his successor, is also celebrated on the 18th day of Dhul Hijjah.
On Wednesday, Iran executed a man for killing a soldier during riots in 2017, ISNA news agency said.
Mustafa Salehi was convicted of shooting Sajjad Shah-Sanai, a member of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). His execution was carried out as a retribution sentence demanded by the victim’s parents, ISNA said.
The riots of late 2017 and early 2018 began as peaceful demonstrations against economic hardship were hijacked by foreign-backed elements to rampage through a number of cities and towns by torching gas stations and destroying public property.
Salehi was executed in Isfahan "at the request of (Shah-Sanai’s) parents,” ISNA said, quoting a statement from the province’s justice department.
Under Iran’s Sharia, or Islamic, law, the family of a victim of murder and some other crimes can demand the death of the guilty party, or commute the sentence in return for financial compensation.
The United States and terrorists groups based in the U.S. and Europe have been fomenting riots through a series of heavily-funded broadcast networks.
In June, Iran’s judiciary said it had sentenced to death Ruhollah Zam for fuelling the late 2017 riots on social media.
Zam, who was based in Paris which is known for hosting MKO terrorists, was detained in 2019, according to the IRGC.
On Sqaturday, Iran’s security officials said they had arrested the head of a U.S.-based terrorist group accused of being behind a deadly 2008 bombing in the southern city of Shiraz and of other abortive attacks.
The group’s Jamshid Sharmahd, who was leading armed and sabotage operations inside Iran, is now in the powerful hands of Iran’s security forces, a statement from the intelligence ministry said.
The leader of the terrorist royalist group known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, or Tondar (Farsi for Thunder) had orchestrated the April 12, 2008 bombing in a packed mosque in Shiraz that martyred 14 people and wounded 215.
Tondar had planned to blow up a dam in Shiraz, use "cyanide bombs” at a Tehran book fair, and plant an explosive device at the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder, the late Imam Khomeini.
U.S., British, Saudi and Israeli intelligence services are the key sponsors of terrorist groups operating against Iran, such as the MKO, PJAK and Takfiri groups.