TEHRAN – Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi has differentiated between the people who protest the recent gas price hike and those who disrupt the country’s security, asserting that damaging public and private property would lead to harsh punishments.

“Damaging public and private property, setting banks and different places ablaze, harming people’s psychological peace and frightening women and children with any intention would lead to harsh punishments,” he said on Monday.

The top judge also said, “Those who provoke individuals from outside the borders do not comprehend their own weakness nor the Islamic Republic’s firmness.” 

Following a hike in the price of gasoline on Thursday midnight, a number of Iranian cities saw sporadic protests that turned violent in some cases.

A number of banks and government buildings have been set ablaze.

In remarks on Sunday morning, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the unrest and acts of vandalism in Iran would create insecurity.

Describing insecurity as the worst calamity for a society, the Leader said “all evil centers in the world” have mobilized efforts in recent days to incite unrest in Iran.

Ayatollah Khamenei also called on the Iranian authorities to be careful that the rise in the price of fuel would not lead to an increase in the price of other commodities.

MH/PA