\n<\/p>\n
Tehran, Iran \u2013<\/strong> Iranian officials continue to promise harsh punishments for \u201crioters\u201d arrested during recent nationwide protests as they trade barbs with United States President Donald Trump amid an ongoing digital blackout.<\/p>\n \u201cOur main work at the judiciary about the recent developments has just started,\u201d judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote in a post on X on Monday.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cIf, without justification, we grant leniency to someone who is not deserving of leniency, then we have acted contrary to justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n His comments came as the internet remains fully blocked for most people across Iran despite a very brief period of partial reconnection on Sunday.<\/p>\n Ejei also had a meeting with President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament chief Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, where the three leaders promised punishments.<\/p>\n In a joint statement released by state media, they said \u201cmurderers and terrorist seditionists\u201d will face decisive action, while people who were \u201ctricked\u201d by foreign powers into protesting could potentially benefit from \u201cIslamic compassion\u201d shown by authorities.<\/p>\n Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed the US and Israel for allegedly arming and funding the protests.<\/p>\n On Saturday, Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made an unusual admission that \u201cseveral thousands\u201d were killed during the protests, but the theocratic establishment maintains that agents affiliated with foreign powers, and not with state forces, were directly responsible.<\/p>\n Tens of thousands are believed to have been arrested since the protests were triggered by shopkeepers in downtown Tehran on December 28, and state authorities continue to announce new arrests almost every day.<\/p>\n The Intelligence Ministry said on Monday that an unspecified number of members of a \u201cterrorist team\u201d that had allegedly entered Iran through the country\u2019s western borders were arrested in Tehran.<\/p>\n State media announced more arrests over the past day in Kerman, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Shiraz and Bandar Anzali, alleging that the targets were \u201cleaders of riots\u201d who engaged in violent offences against government buildings and mosques, among others.<\/p>\n Ahmadreza Radan, the country\u2019s hardline chief of police, told state television on Monday that protesters who were \u201ctricked\u201d have three days to turn themselves in so they can receive reduced sentences.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have made a promise to the people to chase down the rioters and terrorists until the last person,\u201d he said, adding that many of those arrested have already made \u201cconfessions about committing violence, murder and looting\u201d.<\/p>\n State television has aired the confessions of dozens of people with blurred-out faces over recent days, extending a practice that has persisted for many years despite facing international criticism.<\/p>\n Iranian authorities have also emphasised that they intend to make up for some of the financial losses incurred during the protests by confiscating the belongings of those who publicly backed the protests or participated in them.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on the law, the damages of recent riots must be demanded from the backers of the \u2018monarchy sedition\u2019 and these people must be held to account,\u201d said Mohammad Movahedi Azad, the hardline cleric who heads the prosecutor general\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n The Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said all of the assets of a major businessman, including a string of renowned cafes across the country and several top food brands, were seized. The total value of the assets is reportedly believed to be close to the cost of damages incurred in Tehran.<\/p>\n Popular former footballer Voria Ghafouri, who had been arrested in 2022 for supporting previous nationwide protests, also had his cafe confiscated.<\/p>\n At the height of the protests, Trump called on Iranians to \u201ctake over\u201d government institutions, alleging \u201chelp is on the way\u201d, before expressing \u201cgreat respect\u201d for the Iranian leadership based on a claim that planned hangings for more than 800 political prisoners were halted.<\/p>\n But then on Saturday, Trump said it is time for an end to the 37-year rule of Khamenei in Iran \u2013 prompting some of the highest authorities of the Islamic Republic to shoot back.<\/p>\n In a statement carried by state media, the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member constitutional watchdog that has to approve legislation before it becomes law, said it condemns the \u201cinsult and baseless rhetoric of the criminal and foolish\u201d US president.<\/p>\n The council stressed that any transgression against the supreme leader \u201cis considered crossing the red line of the devout people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and will entail heavy costs and serious consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n Ghalibaf, the parliament chief, told a public session of parliament on Monday that Trump \u201cused all of his non-existent credibility to extend chaos, insecurity and killings in Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hossein Afshin, deputy for scientific affairs to the Iranian president, told reporters on Monday that internet restrictions will \u201cgradually\u201d be lifted from the end of the week, but did not divulge further information.<\/p>\n NetBlocks and other international monitors said the occasional internet reconnections signal that the establishment may be testing ways to more vigorously enforce its controlled digital blackout of the Iranian population.<\/p>\n State media announced on Monday that the chief executive of Irancell, one of the country\u2019s top mobile and internet carriers, was replaced.<\/p>\n The move came after \u201csome of Irancell\u2019s operators refrained from the order to restrict communications\u201d on January 8 for several hours, according to the Tasnim news agency, also affiliated with the IRGC. That was the night when the internet and all mobile communications were abruptly cut off at an unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n According to state media, the reformist Ham-Mihan daily newspaper was confiscated on Monday, with two reports written about the protests cited as the reason.<\/p>\n State television also confirmed on Monday that its satellite broadcast was \u201cdisrupted by an unidentified source for moments\u201d the night before. The feed appeared to show moments from the nationwide protests at the time of hijacking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tehran, Iran \u2013 Iranian officials continue to promise harsh punishments for \u201crioters\u201d arrested during recent nationwide protests as they trade barbs with United States President Donald Trump amid an ongoing digital blackout. \u201cOur main work at the judiciary about the recent developments has just started,\u201d judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote in a post on X […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Trump threats \u2018crossing red line\u2019<\/h2>\n
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