Iran’s Judiciary rejects ‘fabricated news’ by hostile media about death penalty for rioter
It said the rumor forced the US State Department to adopt a false and misleading position.
Iran’s judiciary has dismissed as “fabricated news” claims that detained rioter Irfan Soltani has been sentenced to death, saying the rumor has also deceived Washington.
The judiciary’s media center issued a statement on Thursday, two days after the US State Department alleged on its Persian-language X account that Soltani’s execution would take place on January 14.
The judiciary said Soltani, 26, was arrested on January 10 during the recent riots and formally charged with “assembly and collusion against the country’s internal security” as well as “propaganda activities” against the Islamic Republic.
If he is convicted after due process, it added, “The sentence will be imprisonment. Basically, the death penalty does not exist in law for such charges.”
It added that Soltani is currently being held in the central prison in the city of Karaj, northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran.
Also in its statement, the judiciary condemned the “fabrication and irregular practice of news” by hostile media outlets supporting terrorists in foreign-linked riots across Iran.
It said the rumor forced the US State Department to adopt a false and misleading position.
“The spread of such rumors by US-funded opposition groups, with their ability to mislead this regime, shows that those who cooperate with the US administration and support Zionist interests are unreliable and even betray their financial and political sponsors.”
Meanwhile, the judiciary stressed that the hostile media has long been engaged in deliberately and falsely spreading rumors about Iran, citing recent claims of extorting money from the families of those killed in the riots to transport their bodies and estimates of the number of victims.
Some shopkeepers held peaceful demonstrations in various cities last month over economic issues, but after public statements by US and Israeli government figures, the protests turned violent, with Persian-language institutions affiliated with Israel encouraging vandalism and disorder.
Authorities have acknowledged the legitimacy of economic grievances and expressed their commitment to resolving them, while condemning foreign-backed elements for taking advantage of people’s livelihood concerns, which are directly, linked to unilateral US sanctions.
Security and judicial agencies say they have dismantled several armed cells during the unrest and arrested foreign-linked operatives, including agents of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
#Source: Press TV
