Iran says judiciary did not issue death sentence for protester Erfan Soltani

Iran’s judiciary said it had not issued a death sentence for Erfan Soltani, a protester whose reported execution had drawn intense international attention, Iranian state media reported. The state broadcaster IRIB said Mr. Soltani faced "charges of assembly and collusion against national security and propaganda against the system" and that the death penalty does not exist in Iranian law for those offenses.

It added that if the charges are confirmed by the prosecutor’s office and a competent court issues a verdict, the punishment provided by law will be imprisonment. The broadcaster said he is being held at the Central Prison of Karaj; his family and human rights groups had said he was sentenced to death days after his arrest.

President Trump said he had been told the execution would not go ahead and that "the killing in Iran had stopped," citing an unspecified Fox News report. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, denied that Iran intended to execute protesters, called the claim part of a misinformation campaign, and said in a Fox News interview that he had not heard of plans to hang demonstrators.

State media also reported that Iran’s airspace had reopened after hours of restrictions. Authorities have mounted a sweeping crackdown for more than two weeks, imposing an internet blackout as protests that began in late December over a sharp rial collapse and economic hardship spread nationwide.

Key Topics

World, Erfan Soltani, Iran Protests, Irib, Abbas Araghchi, Karaj