Issuance of Verdicts for Some December Protesters on Charges of 'Acts Against Security'

Gholamhossein Esmaili, the head of the Tehran judiciary, announced the issuance of nearly one hundred indictments for those arrested during the nationwide protests in December of last year, with some verdicts issued under the title of acts against 'national security.' In an interview with Mizan, the official news agency of the judiciary, on Thursday, April 25, Esmaili stated that 'many cases' related to the December protests have been filed in Tehran's prosecutor's office, and 'approximately one hundred indictments have been sent from the prosecutor's office to the courts.' According to this judicial official, verdicts have been issued in revolutionary courts for some of these indictments 'under the title of crimes against security.' In December 2017, widespread protests occurred in over one hundred cities in Iran, initially starting with the slogan 'No to Price Hikes' in Mashhad and quickly expanding to all political, cultural, and social arenas. According to the Ministry of Interior, over five thousand people were arrested and 22 were killed during these protests, with harsh slogans directed against the domestic and foreign policies of the Islamic Republic and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In various cities, including the religious city of Qom, demonstrators expressed regret over the 1979 revolution and praised the Pahlavi dynasty. The widespread arrests of demonstrators and students, many of whom did not participate in these protests, as well as the deaths of at least 22 individuals in the streets and the deaths of three in prisons—attributed by judicial officials to 'suicide'—occurred while government officials claimed that they dealt with the protesters with 'leniency.' Previously, in March 2018, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, announced that ten sentences had been issued for those accused in the December protests, sentencing them to prison terms ranging from one to five years. The Tehran prosecutor also reported indictments for 150 people. Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Kermanshah province, also announced the issuance of indictments for 43 protesters from December 2017 in that province. International organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly criticized the lack of transparency in the judicial proceedings of those arrested during the nationwide protests in Iran and expressed concern about the conditions of prisoners, especially after reports of some dying in custody. Senior officials of the Islamic Republic, including the leader, president, minister of interior, and several members of parliament, initially attributed the nationwide protests to 'enemies'; however, they gradually acknowledged the existence of protests in the country and spoke of the necessity of hearing them. For instance, according to Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the minister of interior, investigations do not indicate that the protests were 'organized' or had an external origin. Hossein Zolfaqari, his security deputy, also stated that the December 2017 protests 'crossed all political currents in the country,' with 85 percent of those arrested being under 35 years old. Furthermore, ISNA news agency reported, citing Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran's Passive Defense Organization, about the possibility of a repeat of the 2017 events this year. Masoud Nili, an economic advisor to Hassan Rouhani, also warned about the expansion of the dimensions of protests in Iran, addressing government officials by saying, 'Next time, the opportunity may not be available to you.' Prior to Mr. Nili, the minister of interior had also stated that the factors of discontent have not yet been eliminated and 'a spark is enough to ignite.'