No major political figures have been included among those freed so far, and the amnesty is not expected to touch such figures as Mir-Hossain Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi, the reformist presidential candidates in 2009.
Public Prosecutor Mahmud Jafar Dolatabadi announced last week that Khamenehi has signed Eid-e Fetr amnesties for a total of 130 political prisoners—although Dolat-abadi would not use the term “political prisoners.” Iran insists its holds no such people.
Tehran Prosecutor Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai explained earlier that prisoners most people would consider to be political “who announce their repentance will be recommended ‘to Khamenehi] for release, prison leave, conditional release, et cetera. Basically, these individuals have submitted requests for release from prison.
Roozonline identified 32 people who had been released by name.
They included:
• Hamzeh Karami, a member of Mir-Hossain Musavi’s presidential election committee who had been sentenced to 11 years of prison;
• Ghasem Sholesaadi, who has been in prison since 2010 on charges of writing insulting remarks about the Supreme Leader;
• Ali Malihi, a member of the Advar Tahkim Vahdat university alumni organization, who was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to four years;
• Esmail Sahabe, a member of the Islamic Republic Partnership Party, the main reformist political party during the Khatami presidency, who was also arrested in 2010 for organizing a prayer session; and
• Rahman Boozari, a journalist and translator who was sentenced to two years in prison in 2011.
Roozonline said a group of political prisoners was freed last year under a similar amnesty. But it said most of the people freed then had already completed more than half of their sentences and were thus eligible for release under the regular release program. Many had actually served almost their entire prison terms, it said.
The Kaleme reformist website, meanwhile, reported that 14 prisoners arrested in the post-election disorders of 2009 were flogged recently at Evin prison. Radio Farda said it was able to confirm a number of the floggings by telephoning family members.