Mlawi Abdulhamid said in the Friday prayer sermon, “A person who protested with stones and sticks or just by shouting should not be accused of Mohrebeh. The Quran says Mohrebeh, when a group uses weapons and attached.” on his website.
In addition to Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, where cleric Abdulhamid spoke, protests took place in Chabahar, Taftan and other parts of the impoverished province, according to videos posted on social media. The footage could not be verified.
On Tuesday, Javed Rahman, the UN-appointed independent expert on Iran, expressed concern that the crackdown on protesters was intensifying, with authorities launching a “campaign” to carry out the death penalty.
Rahman said that 21 people arrested in connection with the protests already face the death penalty, including a woman charged with “vague and broadly framed criminal offences”, and six has been sentenced this month.