Iran orders probe, frees prisoners after southeast unrest

TEHRAN: Iran´s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered further investigations and the release of prisoners after deadly violence in the country´s southeast, an official dispatched to the region said.

The unrest in Zahedan, the capital of impoverished Sistan-Baluchistan province which borders Pakistan, erupted on September 30 and authorities say six members of the security forces were among the dozens of dead.

The casualties came against the backdrop of nationwide unrest that followed the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran´s strict dress code for women.

Since the start of the protests more than 2,000 people have been charged, half of them in Tehran, according to the judiciary, which on Sunday issued its first death sentence over the protests. A delegation from Khamenei visited the southeastern region during the weekend to express sadness and promise solutions, official media reported.

“The request of the supreme leader is to act on the basis of facts, the investigations supervised by the Supreme National Security Council,” the country´s top security body, Mohammad-Javad Haj Ali Akbari, the delegation´s spokesman, said late on Sunday.

He was quoted by the state IRNA news agency. In late October the Sistan-Baluchistan security council said it had concluded an investigation that found “negligence” by officers and the deaths of “innocent” civilians during the unrest. The council announced the dismissal of Zahedan´s police chief as well as the head of a police station, after the probe ordered by President Ebrahim Raisi.