IRANIAN Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pardoned 22,000 people arrested during recent anti-government protests, the head of the judiciary announced today.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the statement by Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, though it gave a glimpse of the size of the crackdown on demonstrations against last September’s death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Ms Amini died soon after being detained by the so-called morality police for allegedly infringing Iran’s strict dress code for women.
History shows from Iraq to Libya, and now Iran, that regime-change fantasies rarely deliver stability — but they always deliver human and economic cost, says MARYAM ESLAMDOUST
MOHAMMAD OMIDVAR, a senior figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, tells the Morning Star that mass protests are rooted in poverty, corruption and neoliberal rule and warns against monarchist revival and US-engineered regime change



