This hollow maneuver comes as in recent weeks, facing the spread of general discontent and fearing the eruption of anti-government protests, the clerical regime has arrested many Mojahedin sympathizers, former political prisoners and teenagers in different cities across the nation.
To ensure that there are no misunderstandings, the mullahs stressed that the amnesty does not in any way include political prisoners who are described as members and sympathizers of "counterrevolutionary grouplets."
Khamenei's decree covers a small number of ordinary offenders and those imprisoned over financial offenses of less than $600 who have served the major part of their sentences.
By these transparent ploys, the mullahs' anti-human regime is desperately trying to cover up its countless atrocities during the past two decades. The leaders of this medieval regime must face an international tribunal for their crimes against humanity, including the execution of 120,000 political prisoners, 30,000 of whom were massacred in 1988, the death of one million Iranians in the unpatriotic war with Iraq and the assassination of hundreds of Iranian dissidents abroad.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 12, 1999
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