{"id":284033,"date":"2026-01-14T14:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/284033\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T14:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:44:07","slug":"iranian-chief-justice-calls-for-swift-punishment-of-protest-detainees-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/284033\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian chief justice calls for swift punishment of protest detainees \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran<\/a>\u2019s chief justice has said the regime should move swiftly to \u201cpunish\u201d people detained in nationwide protests, despite Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s threat that he would \u201ctake very strong action\u201d if Tehran started executing protesters.<\/p>\n

In a video posted on Wednesday by Tasnim, a state-affiliated news agency close to the Revolutionary Guards, judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said: \u201cIf we want to do something, we have to do it quickly, do it at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a job becomes late, it\u2019s possible that something we could do today, do it in two months\u2019 time it doesn\u2019t have the same effect,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who beheaded people in the streets or burned people alive must be tried and punished as quickly as possible,\u201d he said, in an allusion to the regime\u2019s characterisation of some of the protesters as engaging in \u201cterrorist\u201d acts.<\/p>\n

Mr Mohseni-Ejei\u2019s remarks came hours after Mr Trump warned that the US could intervene in the country if the regime carried out executions of people detained in the mass anti-regime demonstrations that have swept the country since late December.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they hang them, you\u2019re going to see some things,\u201d he told CBS on Tuesday. \u201cWe will take very strong action, if they do such a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also urged Tehran\u2019s leadership to \u201cshow humanity\u201d in dealing with the demonstrators. Human rights groups outside Iran have said thousands have been killed in the protests, while one western official said the death toll ranged between 4,000 and 5,000 people.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How Iran cut off the internet \u2013 and Iranians reconnected to the worldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Iranian authorities have repeatedly threatened swift punishment for those they have characterised as violent rioters and terrorists, while also acknowledging peaceful protesters\u2019 legitimate concerns.<\/p>\n

They have also sought to draw a distinction between the protests leading up to January 8th, which erupted in late December over the regime\u2019s failure to stabilise the economy and have been characterised as \u201cpeaceful\u201d, and the past six days, which foreign minister Abbas Araqchi claimed involved \u201cterrorist elements\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the state-affiliated news agency Mehr, justice minister Amin Hossein Rahimi told reporters in Tehran that after January 8th, \u201cit was not about protest, it was an all-out civil war\u201d, adding that \u201canyone who has been arrested then is definitely a criminal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Rahimi said that \u201cterrorists\u201d and murderers would face \u201cabsolutely no leniency\u201d.<\/p>\n

The protests, which began in late December when shopkeepers in Tehran demonstrated over economic distress and mismanagement, have spiralled into the most severe anti-regime unrest since the Islamic revolution in 1979, with people from across social classes joining calls to overthrow the theocracy.<\/p>\n

While some protests remained peaceful, in other cases demonstrators attacked security forces and police stations. Iran\u2019s security forces and military have used batons, tear gas, pellet bullets and live ammunition to disperse crowds, eyewitnesses told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump had appeared to suggest that US action in Iran was imminent, posting on his Truth Social platform that \u201cHELP IS ON ITS WAY\u201d and calling on protesters to \u201ctake over your institutions\u201d.<\/p>\n

His remarks came as details of the government\u2019s crackdown began emerging, as Iranians made phone calls abroad for the first time on Tuesday, after authorities imposed a days-long countrywide internet blackout.<\/p>\n

Residents have shared accounts of burned buses, mosques and police stations across their cities, amid accusations by officials that armed agitators were hiding among the demonstrators.<\/p>\n

Abdolrahim Mousavi, Iran\u2019s chief of the Joint Armed Forces Staff, said on Wednesday that the country \u201chad never faced this level of destruction\u201d, which he blamed on \u201ctrained terrorists on the ground\u201d and \u201cnaked violence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump on Tuesday said he was looking to \u201cget some accurate numbers as to what\u2019s happening with regard to the killing. The killing looks like it\u2019s significant, but we don\u2019t know yet for certain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s push to support protesters in Iran, possibly with military strikes, risks further destabilising the Middle East.<\/p>\n

While a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between the US and Iran remains possible, Mr Trump said on social media that he had scrapped all meetings with Tehran\u2019s officials until the \u201csenseless killing of protesters\u201d ended.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has suggested that US and Israeli air strikes in June had weakened Iran such that its capacity to retaliate against American interests in the region was limited.<\/p>\n

But he acknowledged that US air strikes might not succeed in protecting Iranian protesters, whom he vowed this month to \u201crescue\u201d from regime violence.<\/p>\n

Majid Mousavi, commander of Iran\u2019s air force, said on Wednesday that the country\u2019s aerospace defensiveness \u201cis at peak defensive readiness and is ready to confront any aggression\u201d. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s chief justice has said the regime should move swiftly to \u201cpunish\u201d people detained in nationwide protests, despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,18929,135856,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-284033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-iran-protests","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115893991060861415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}