Iran’s judiciary says it pardoned 22,000 jailed protesters

Iran’s judiciary said it pardoned some 22,000 people arrested in widespread anti-government protests that erupted last September.

They are among some 82,000 people who were part of a prisoner amnesty announced last month by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, said in a statement on the state-run Mizan Online.

The pardons do not include protesters who have been accused or convicted of violent crimes, the statement added.

Iran has so far executed four people arrested for taking part in the protests that were triggered by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who’d been detained for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes.

Rights groups say almost 20,000 people have been detained in the unrest since it started and more than 500 people, including scores of children, have been killed by security forces.