Several Iranian protesters who had been detained and then released under an amnesty granted by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February have been summoned by Iran’s judiciary to face new charges.
The Committee to Follow Up the Situation of Detainees, an informal network of activists inside Iran, said on May 15 that since the announcement of the amnesty, about 21,000 cases against people arrested during mass unrest following the death of a young woman while in police custody for an alleged hijab infraction in September have been closed and the detainees released.
However, the group added in a post on Twitter that "new judicial cases have been filed for some of them and the judicial system is summoning them again with new accusations."
The committee did not give an estimate as to how many people face new charges.
Rights groups and activists have previously downplayed the amnesty, which was first announced in early February.
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, has said the “so-called ‘pardon’ is nothing but a shameless public relations stunt that shows the completely arbitrary nature of justice in the Islamic republic, where arrests and releases are at the whim of the state.”
Last September, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country's morality police ignited widespread protests across Iran. The demonstrations drew participants from all sectors of society, marking one of the most significant challenges to the Islamic republic since its establishment in 1979.
The activist news agency HRANA reports that approximately 20,000 people have been detained in relation to these protests, with authorities attributing the unrest to foreign adversaries.
Human rights organizations estimate that the ensuing crackdown has resulted in over 500 fatalities, including 71 minors. The Iranian judiciary has also confirmed the execution of at least four individuals in connection with these events.