Iran gives

Iran’s national police chief said Monday that people who were “tricked” into joining weeks-long protests deemed “riots” by Iranian authorities would receive lighter punishments if they surrendered within three days.

“The young people who unintentionally became involved in the unrest are considered deluded individuals, not enemy soldiers” and “will be treated leniently by the Islamic Republic system,” Ahmad-Reza Radan said on Iranian state television, adding that those individuals had “a maximum of three days” to surrender.

Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship erupted into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to IranHowever, hardline Islamic rulers in years they calmed down after a brutal crackdown that sources told News themezone saw between 12,000 and 20,000 people killed.

Security officials cited by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, associated with the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said late last week that around 3,000 people had been arrested in connection with the demonstrations. Human rights groups say the number is likely closer to 20,000.

Iranian officials say the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into “riots,” which they accuse the country’s archenemies, the United States and Israel, of fomenting to destabilize the regime, although they have presented no evidence to support the claim.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that authorities “must break the back of seditionists,” adding that domestic and foreign “criminals” would not be spared punishment.

“We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, the damage and the accusations he has leveled against the Iranian nation,” he added.

The Iranian regime has already begun punishing people deemed to have supported the protests in some way, even if they did not take to the streets. Last week, Tasnim quoted Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, as saying that officials in the country’s judiciary were “obliged to identify the properties of ‘terrorists’ and report them to prosecutors,” as did a prominent businessman who closed his cafes in solidarity with the protests. arrested and confiscated his property.

The attorney general said that anyone who supported the uprising would have their assets confiscated to “teach them a lesson.”

Iranian state television hacked and crown prince appears to generate opposition

Iranian state television was hacked for several minutes on Sunday night, and regime-sanctioned broadcasts were interrupted and replaced by clips of the country’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, calling on security forces not to “point their weapons at the people.”

The clips aired Sunday night on several channels run by the state-controlled IRIB network. They showed Pahlavi and presented claims that some Iranian security forces had “lay down their arms and swore an oath of loyalty to the people” during the protests.

Pahlavi has lived outside Iran for almost 50 years, but during the two weeks of unrest he presented himself as a viable opposition leader, ready to step in and replace the Islamic Republic’s hardline rulers.

“This is a message to the military and security forces,” an on-screen graphic read. “Do not point your weapons at the people. Join the nation for the freedom of Iran.”

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency cited a statement from IRIB acknowledging that its satellite signal in “some areas of the country was momentarily interrupted by an unknown source.”

The statement made no mention of what had been aired.

Pahlavi called President Trump take action against the Iranian regime before the protests were quelled.

“We need action to be taken,” Pahlavi said in an interview with News themezone’ Norah O’Donnell a week ago. “The best way to ensure that there will be fewer deaths in Iran is to intervene sooner, so that this regime finally collapses and puts an end to all the problems we face.”