Iran judiciary demands 'maximum penalty' for leaders of protests
(DPA) The leaders of a wave of protests that shook Iran's political establishment in recent days should be handed the stiffest possible sentences, a leading Iranian judiciary official said on Monday.
"Surely those who organized and led the unrest against the establishment can expect the maximum penalty," Hamid Shahriari, deputy head of the country's judiciary, was quoted as saying by the Isna news agency.
The death penalty is the most severe sentence for convicts in Iran, and can be applied for a range of offences, including drugs, murder or treason charges.
Shahriari did not put a figure on the number of people arrested in protests, which started in late December and focused on economic grievances but later transformed into broader shows of dissent against Iran's political and religious elite.
As many as 1,000 to 1,800 people are thought to have been detained during the demonstrations.
We are now closing the live blog for today, but we expect to be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Iran coverage here.
From AFP:
CIA chief denies agency role in Iran unrest, predicts new violence
The head of the CIA on January 7 denied his agency had any role in fomenting the recent anti-government protests in Iran but predicted the violent unrest "is not behind us."
Mike Pompeo, named a year ago by President Donald Trump to head the intelligence agency, told Fox News Sunday that economic conditions in Iran "are not good."
"That's what caused the people to take to the streets," he said. He blamed what he called Tehran's "backward-looking" regime for turning a deaf ear to the voices of the people.
Asked about a claim by Iran's prosecutor general, Mohammad Javad Montazeri, that a CIA official had coordinated with Israel and Saudi Arabia -- Iran's regional rivals -- to work with exiled Iranian groups to stir dissent in Iran, Pompeo replied simply: "It's false."
"This was the Iranian people -- started by them, created by them, continued by them, demanding a better set of living conditions and a break from the theocratic regime."