NCRI – Reporting on a propaganda move by the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader to “pardon” 81 political prisoners in Iran, a human rights activist told the American news channel CNN on June 4 that Ali Khamenei can and should free the remaining prisoners or else the so-called pardons would be seen as a political ploy meant to diminish the intensity of domestic and international criticism about the regime’s suppression. Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, told CNN in an interview: If Khamenei can pardon these 81 individuals, in effect confirming they have committed no crimes, he can and should release all those remaining in Iranian prisons who have likewise been wrongfully prosecuted.
He added: Otherwise it must be concluded that the pardons are a political ploy aimed at blunting domestic and international criticism of extreme political repression that continues in Iran.
The campaign said it has received reports from inside Iranian prisons that prisoners have been forced to request to be pardoned by Khamenei.
CNN added that about 4,000 people have been arrested in relation to the post-June 2009 presidential elections in Iran, with an unknown number of them sentenced to death.
