Iran: Prominent Sunni cleric calls to release detained protesters

A prominent Sunni cleric called on Iranian authorities on Friday to release thousands of detained protesters and halt executions, as street marches continued in a turbulent south-eastern province as part of a three-month protest.

Amnesty International shared that 26 people face possible execution after the Islamic Republic executed two people arrested over protests sparked by the death of a young Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini, on 16 September.

The unrest, in which protestors from all walks of life in Iranian society took part, called for the fall of religious rule in the country. The protests pose one of the biggest challenges to the Shia-ruled republic since the 1979 revolution.

According to Amnesty International: “At least 26 people are at great risk of execution in connection with nationwide protests after Iranian authorities arbitrarily executed two individuals following grossly unfair sham trials in a bid to instil fear among the public and end protests.”

“Of the 26, at least 11 are sentenced to death, and 15 are charged with capital offences and awaiting or undergoing trials,” it added.

According to his website, the opposition Sunni cleric, Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, criticised the death penalty.

READ: Iran jails 400 protesters in Tehran amid unrest

“We recommend that the prisoners who were recently arrested during these protests be released and that they not be treated cruelly, he urged, adding, “most of them are extremely young.”

He continued in his Friday sermon: “Do not accuse them of Hirabah (a legal category in Islamic law), and if they have committed it, their punishment should not be death.”

After the end of the sermon, demonstrators took to the streets in Zahedan, the capital of the impoverished south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. “This nation wants freedom; it wants a prosperous country,” chanted the demonstrators in video clips circulating on social media.