Iran’s chief justice has said the regime should move swiftly to “punish” people detained in nationwide protests, despite Donald Trump’s threat that he would “take very strong action” if Tehran started executing protesters.
In a video posted on Wednesday by Tasnim, a state-affiliated news agency close to the Revolutionary Guards, judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said: “If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly, do it at the right time.”
“If a job becomes late, it’s possible that something we could do today, do it in two months’ time it doesn’t have the same effect,” he added.
“Those who beheaded people in the streets or burned people alive must be tried and punished as quickly as possible,” he said, in an allusion to the regime’s characterisation of some of the protesters as engaging in “terrorist” acts.
Mohseni-Ejei’s remarks came hours after Trump warned that the US could intervene in the country if the regime carried out executions of people detained in the mass anti-regime demonstrations that have swept the country since late December.
“If they hang them, you’re going to see some things,” he told CBS on Tuesday. “We will take very strong action, if they do such a thing.”
He also urged Tehran’s leadership to “show humanity” in dealing with the demonstrators. Human rights groups outside Iran have said thousands have been killed in the protests, while one western official said the death toll ranged between 4,000 and 5,000 people.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly threatened swift punishment for those they have characterised as violent rioters and terrorists, while also acknowledging peaceful protesters’ legitimate concerns.
They have also sought to draw a distinction between the protests leading up to January 8, which erupted in late December over the regime’s failure to stabilise the economy and have been characterised as “peaceful”, and the past six days, which foreign minister Abbas Araghchi claimed involved “terrorist elements”.
According to the state-affiliated news agency Mehr, justice minister Amin Hossein Rahimi told reporters in Tehran that after January 8, “it was not about protest, it was an all-out civil war”, adding that “anyone who has been arrested then is definitely a criminal”.
Rahimi said that “terrorists” and murderers would face “absolutely no leniency”.
The protests, which began in late December when shopkeepers in Tehran demonstrated over economic distress and mismanagement, have spiralled into the most severe anti-regime unrest since the Islamic revolution in 1979, with people from across social classes joining calls to overthrow the theocracy.
While some protests remained peaceful, in other cases demonstrators attacked security forces and police stations. Iran’s security forces and military have used batons, tear gas, pellet bullets and live ammunition to disperse crowds, eyewitnesses told the FT.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump had appeared to suggest that US action in Iran was imminent, posting on his Truth Social platform that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY” and calling on protesters to “take over your institutions”.
His remarks came as details of the government’s crackdown began emerging, as Iranians made phone calls abroad for the first time on Tuesday, after authorities imposed a days-long countrywide internet blackout.
Residents have shared accounts of burned buses, mosques and police stations across their cities, amid accusations by officials that armed agitators were hiding among the demonstrators.
Abdolrahim Mousavi, Iran’s chief of the Joint Armed Forces Staff, said on Wednesday that the country “had never faced this level of destruction”, which he blamed on “trained terrorists on the ground” and “naked violence”.
Trump on Tuesday said he was looking to “get some accurate numbers as to what’s happening with regard to the killing. The killing looks like it’s significant, but we don’t know yet for certain.”
Washington’s push to support protesters in Iran, possibly with military strikes, risks further destabilising the Middle East.
While a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between the US and Iran remains possible, Trump said on social media that he had scrapped all meetings with Tehran’s officials until the “senseless killing of protesters” ended.
Trump has suggested that US and Israeli air strikes in June had weakened Iran such that its capacity to retaliate against American interests in the region was limited.
But he acknowledged that US air strikes might not succeed in protecting Iranian protesters, whom he vowed this month to “rescue” from regime violence.
Majid Mousavi, commander of Iran’s air force, said on Wednesday that the country’s aerospace defensiveness “is at peak defensive readiness and is ready to confront any aggression”.
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