Iran’s judiciary chief says there will be ‘no leniency’ toward ‘rioters’

Iran will offer no leniency to “rioters,” though the public has a right to demonstrate, the head of the judiciary says, following more than a week of protests.

The demonstrations began last Sunday when shopkeepers staged a strike over high prices and economic stagnation, but they have since spread to other places and expanded to include political demands.

“I instruct the attorney general and prosecutors across the country to act in accordance with the law and with resolve against the rioters and those who support them… and to show no leniency or indulgence,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei says, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.

He adds that Iran “listens to the protesters and their criticism, and distinguishes between them and rioters.”

Protests have taken place in 25 out of Iran’s 31 provinces and affected, to varying degrees, at least 45 different cities, most of them small or medium-sized and concentrated in the west, according to an AFP tally based on official statements and media reports.

At least 16 people have been killed, rights groups say.