Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has pardoned "tens of thousands of prisoners," including some arrested during the country's massive anti-government protests in recent months.

This was reported by Reuters with reference to the state news agency IRNA.

However, the pardon approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will not apply to any of the dual national prisoners held in Iran.

Among them are persons accused of "espionage for the benefit of foreign agents" or "affiliated with groups hostile to the Islamic Republic." 

Also, there will be no amnesty for those charged with a specific crime, which Iran calls "the spread of corruption that threatens social and political well-being."

Those accused of this crime are considered "enemies of God on Earth", they include political dissidents, active participants in protests and gross violators of religious norms.

Four protesters have already been executed on this charge. 

As you know, for several months Iran has been gripped by a large protest movement that began after the killing on September 16, 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was beaten to death by Iran's morality police for not wearing the hijab headscarf properly.

According to human rights activists, by the end of January 2023, the Iranian authorities have executed 55 people, claiming that the use of the death penalty is aimed at the spread of "terror" in the country.

About 20,000 people were arrested, and more than 100 faced the death penalty. 

Human rights organizations estimate that at least 500 people, including 70 minors, died during the anti-government protests in Iran.

It will be recalled that the Iranian authorities sentenced the British-Iranian citizen and former Iranian Defense Minister Alireza Akbari to the death penalty.

He was executed.

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