Iran vows to punish rioters arrested during protests amid spat with Trump
By Al Jazeera, January 20, 2026Iranian officials continue to promise harsh punishments for “rioters” arrested during recent nationwide protests as they trade barbs with United States President Donald Trump amid an ongoing digital blackout.
“Our main work at the judiciary about the recent developments has just started,” judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote in a post on X on Monday, January 19, 2026.
“If, without justification, we grant leniency to someone who is not deserving of leniency, then we have acted contrary to justice,” he said.
His comments came as the internet remains fully blocked for most people across Iran despite a very brief period of partial reconnection.
Ejei also had a meeting with President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament chief Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, where the three leaders promised punishments.
In a joint statement released by state media, they said “murderers and terrorist seditionists” will face decisive action, while people who were “tricked” by foreign powers into protesting could potentially benefit from “Islamic compassion” shown by authorities.
Last week president Trump told reporters that Iran ” cancelled the hanging of over 800 people. “I greatly respect the fact that they cancelled,” he said at the White House.
A few days earlier, Trump spent days warning that the US could strike Iran if its government triggered mass killings during widespread protests that had swept that country.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed the US and Israel for allegedly arming and funding the protests.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made an unusual admission that “several thousands” were killed during the protests, but the theocratic establishment maintains that agents affiliated with foreign powers, and not with state forces, were directly responsible.
Tens of thousands are believed to have been arrested since the protests were triggered by shopkeepers in downtown Tehran on December 28, and state authorities continue to announce new arrests almost every day.
The Intelligence Ministry said on Monday that an unspecified number of members of a “terrorist team” that had allegedly entered Iran through the country’s western borders were arrested in Tehran.
State media announced more arrests over the past day in Kerman, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Shiraz and Bandar Anzali, alleging that the targets were “leaders of riots” who engaged in violent offences against government buildings and mosques, among others.
Ahmadreza Radan, the country’s hardline chief of police, told state television that protesters who were “tricked” have three days to turn themselves in so they can receive reduced sentences.
“We have made a promise to the people to chase down the rioters and terrorists until the last person,” he said, adding that many of those arrested have already made “confessions about committing violence, murder and looting”.
State television has aired the confessions of dozens of people with blurred-out faces over recent days, extending a practice that has persisted for many years despite facing international criticism.