TEHRAN – Judiciary Chief Seyed Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday that maintaining security is the most important issue in the country, stressing that the judiciary will not tolerate any threat to the society’s tranquility. 

“Today, Iran is known as the safest country in the region, so we will not allow anybody to put the people’s security in danger,” Raisi told a gathering of Basiji students in the Imam Ali sports stadium. 

The remarks by the top judge came one week after the government increased petrol prices and people in certain cities poured into the streets protesting the decision. 

Certain rioters misused the people’s protest against price rise by attacking security forces with knives, machetes, and even guns, killing a number of them. The rioters also damaged public and private property and set a number of banks and state buildings on fire.

The Judiciary chief has expressed his dismay over the way the price increase was implemented, suggesting that the citizens should have been fully informed about it before it had gone into force.

“We consider you people as our confident. We believe that if a large number of great decisions are made after consultations with people… and gaining consensus of elites, those decisions will turn into the greatest supporters of the people,” Ayatollah Raisi remarked. 

Raisi also criticized the Rouhani administration for postponing the decision for gradually increasing petrol prices over the last six years of its ruling. 

“Based on the law, the government was committed since a couple of years ago to manage fuel but it did nothing which is meant the government delayed its duty clearly described by the law for several years,” top judge complained.   

Tehran Friday prayers leader Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Khatami said based on the Article 27 of Iran’s constitution the people are entitled to hold peaceful gatherings and rallies provided that “principles of Islam” are not targeted. 

The constitution’s chapter III (Article 19 to 42) refers to the rights of the Iranian people saying, “Article 27 provides for freedom of assembly, provided that arms are not carried and the assemblies are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam. The law shall determine the details of this exception.”

On November 15, at night time, the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) issued a statement to recount details for new prices of gasoline in the country, which was followed by another statement in the next day by Vice-President and Head of the Management and Planning Organization (MPO) Mohammad Baqer Nobakht who said that the revenues from price increase would be paid in the form cash subsidy to 60 million people.
 

MJ/PA