Details – Iran using judiciary to stop protests

Iran has used judicial authorities to crack down on peaceful protesters in an attempt to end a wave of protests that has rocked the country for the second month, following the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody.

Iran has charged 1,000 people in the capital, Tehran, with participating in nationwide protests, the official IRNA news agency reported.

In a press statement, Tehran Province Prosecutor General Ali al-Qassi Mehr claimed that those “charged with serious crimes, including assault or killing security guards and setting fire to public facilities, have been given a date (for their trial before the Revolutionary Court).”

Their trials will be held in public later this week, Mehr said.

On Saturday, 315 people were charged, and more than 700 people from different provinces across Iran were facing the same charges, according to the pro-state Student News Agency (ISNA).

This comes as the Iranian authorities have been intensifying their efforts to put an end to nationwide protests for more than six weeks.

Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami warned the protesters that Saturday would be the last day to take to the streets.

“Put evil aside, today is the last day of riots, don’t come to the streets again, what more do you want than the lives of these people,” Salami said at a funeral ceremony in Shiraz on Saturday.

Salami described the protests as a “conspiracy” that is “the product of the common policies of the United States, England, Saudi Arabia, and the Zionist regime,” messages frequently used by the regime.

Despite Salami’s warnings, students continued their protests in large numbers at several of the country’s major universities in Sanandaj.