Iran gives "young people who became unwittingly involved" in protests 3 days to surrender, for "leniency"
Iran's national police chief said Monday that people who were "deceived" into joining weeks-long protests deemed "riots" by Iranian authorities would receive lighter punishment if they turned themselves in within three days.
"Young people who became unwittingly involved in the riots are considered to be deceived individuals, not enemy soldiers" and "will be treated with leniency by the Islamic Republic system," Ahmad-Reza Radan said on Iranian state television, adding that such individuals had "a maximum of three days" to surrender.
Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to Iran's hardline Islamic rulers in years, though they subsided after a brutal crackdown that sources tell CBS News saw between 12,000 and 20,000 people killed.
Security officials cited by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is 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. 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 arch-foes the United States and Israel of fomenting to destabilize the regime, though they have presented no evidence to back up the claim.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that authorities "must break the back of the seditionists," adding that domestic and foreign "criminals" would not be spared punishment.
"We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has leveled against the Iranian nation," he added.
The Iranian regime has already begun punishing people who were deemed to have supported the protests in any way, even if they didn't go out onto the streets themselves. Last week, Tasnim quoted Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Movahedi Azad as saying officials from the country's judiciary were "obliged to identify the property of the 'terrorists' and report it to the prosecutors," as a prominent businessman who closed his cafes in solidarity with the protests was detained and had his assets seized.
The attorney general said anyone who backed the uprising would have their assets seized to "teach them a lesson."
Iranian state TV hacked, with crown prince popping up to rally opposition
Iranian state TV was hacked for several minutes on Sunday night, with regime-sanctioned broadcasts being interrupted and replaced by clips of the country's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi calling for security forces not to "point your 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 "laid down their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to the people" during the protests.
Pahlavi has lived outside of Iran for almost 50 years, but he presented himself during the two weeks of unrest as a viable opposition leader, ready to step in and replace the Islamic Republic's hardline rulers.
"This is a message to the army and security forces," one onscreen graphic read. "Don't point your weapons at the people. Join the nation for the freedom of Iran."
The semi-official Iranian news agency Fars quoted a statement from IRIB acknowledging that its satellite signal in "some areas of the country was momentarily disrupted by an unknown source."
The statement made no mention of what had been aired.
Pahlavi called on President Trump to take action against the Iranian regime before the protests were quashed.
"We need action to be taken," Pahlavi said in an interview with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell a week ago. "The best way to ensure that there will be less people killed in Iran is to intervene sooner, so this regime finally collapses and puts an end to all the problems that we are facing."