Iran ‘just getting started’ on punishing ‘rioters’ arrested during protests

Authorities are confiscating assets of people backing protesters to pay for damages incurred during the unrest.

Tehran, Iran – Iranian officials continue to promise harsh punishments for “rioters” arrested during recent nationwide protests as they trade barbs with United States President Donald Trump amid an ongoing digital blackout.

“Our main work at the judiciary about the recent developments has just started,” judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote in a post on X on Monday.

“If, without justification, we grant leniency to someone who is not deserving of leniency, then we have acted contrary to justice,” he said.

His comments came as the internet remains fully blocked for most people across Iran despite a very brief period of partial reconnection on Sunday.

Ejei also had a meeting with President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament chief Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, where the three leaders promised punishments.

In a joint statement released by state media, they said “murderers and terrorist seditionists” will face decisive action, while people who were “tricked” by foreign powers into protesting could potentially benefit from “Islamic compassion” shown by authorities.

last week president Trump told reporters that Iran ”canceled the hanging of over 800 people. “I greatly respect the fact that they canceled,” he said at the White House.

A few days earlier, Trump spent days warning that the US could strike Iran if its government triggered mass killings during widespread protests that have swept that country.

Tens of thousands are believed to have been arrested since the protests were triggered by shopkeepers in downtown Tehran on December 28, and state authorities continue to announce new arrests almost every day.

The Intelligence Ministry said on Monday that an unspecified number of members of a “terrorist team” that had allegedly entered Iran through the country’s western borders were arrested in Tehran.

State media announced more arrests over the past day in Kerman, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Shiraz and Bandar Anzali, alleging that the targets were “leaders of riots” who engaged in violent offences against government buildings and mosques, among others.

Trump threats ‘crossing red line’

Ahmadreza Radan, the country’s hardline chief of police, told state television on Monday that protesters who were “tricked” have three days to turn themselves in so they can receive reduced sentences.

“We have made a promise to the people to chase down the rioters and terrorists until the last person,” he said, adding that many of those arrested have already made “confessions about committing violence, murder and looting”.

“Based on the law, the damages of recent riots must be demanded from the backers of the ‘monarchy sedition’ and these people must be held to account,” said Mohammad Movahedi Azad, the hardline cleric who heads the prosecutor general’s authority.

The Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said all of the assets of a major businessman, including a string of renowned cafes across the country and several top food brands, were seized. The total value of the assets is reportedly believed to be close to the cost of damages incurred in Tehran.

Popular former footballer Voria Ghafouri, who had been arrested in 2022 for supporting previous nationwide protests, also had his cafe confiscated.

At the height of the protests, Trump called on Iranians to “take over” government institutions, alleging “help is on the way”, before expressing “great respect” for the Iranian leadership based on a claim that planned hangings for more than 800 political prisoners were halted.

But then on Saturday, Trump said it is time for an end to the 37-year rule of Khamenei in Iran – prompting some of the highest authorities of the Islamic Republic to shoot back.

In a statement carried by state media, the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member constitutional watchdog that has to approve legislation before it becomes law, said it condemns the “insult and baseless rhetoric of the criminal and foolish” US president.

The council stressed that any transgression against the supreme leader “is considered crossing the red line of the devout people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and will entail heavy costs and serious consequences”.

Ghalibaf, the parliament chief, told a public session of parliament on Monday that Trump “used all of his non-existent credibility to extend chaos, insecurity and killings in Iran”.

Meanwhile, Hossein Afshin, deputy for scientific affairs to the Iranian president, told reporters on Monday that internet restrictions will “gradually” be lifted from the end of the week, but did not divulge further information.

NetBlocks and other international monitors said the occasional internet reconnections signal that the establishment may be testing ways to more vigorously enforce its controlled digital blackout of the Iranian population.