Iranian judicial authorities have pardoned 22,000 people who took part in anti-government protests, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Monday.
The official IRNA news agency reported early last month that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had pardoned “tens of thousands” of prisoners including some arrested in the protests in a deadly crackdown on dissent.
“So far 82,000 people have been pardoned, including 22,000 people who participated in (the) protests,” Ejei said.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the mass release, news agencies AP and Reuters said.
The country has been swept by protests since the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in the custody of the country’s morality police last September.
The protest was one of the most-serious challenges to the establishment since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
More than 500 people have been killed as authorities violently suppressed the huge protests, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a rights group.
IRNA had previously suggested Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could pardon that many people swept up in the protests, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan starts later next week.
