TEHRAN
\nIranian activists on Sunday dismissed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s decree reportedly ordering amnesty or a reduction in prison sentences for \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of people detained amid nationwide anti-government protests shaking the country, acknowledging for the first time the scale of the crackdown.
\n\u201cKhamenei\u2019s hypocritical pardon doesn\u2019t change anything,\u201d said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights.
\n\u201cNot only all protesters must be released unconditionally, but also it is a public right that those who ordered the bloody repression and their agents are held accountable.\u201d
\nThe decree by Khamenei, part of a yearly pardoning by the supreme leader before the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, comes as a long-detained opposition leader called for a nationwide referendum on whether to write a new constitution for Iran.
\nState media also published a list of caveats over the order that would disqualify those with ties abroad or facing spying charges \u2014 allegations which have been met with wide international criticism.
\nKhamenei \u201cagreed to offer amnesty and reduce the sentences of tens of thousands accused and convicted in the recent incidents,\u201d the state-run IRNA news agency said in a Farsi report.
\nA later IRNA report carried by its English-language service said the pardons and commuted sentences were for \u201ctens of thousands of convicts, including the arrestees of the recent riots in Iran.\u201d Authorities did not immediately acknowledge the discrepancy in the reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEHRAN Iranian activists on Sunday dismissed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s decree reportedly ordering amnesty or a reduction in prison sentences for \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of people detained amid nationwide anti-government protests shaking the country, acknowledging for the first time the scale of the crackdown. \u201cKhamenei\u2019s hypocritical pardon doesn\u2019t change anything,\u201d said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-312205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n