By Biodun Busari 

Anti-government hackers briefly interrupted a televised speech by Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi during the 44th anniversary of the Iranian revolution on Saturday. 

The country which has witnessed civil unrest for a couple of months organised rallies, but the disgruntled people seemed not to have backed down. 

Raisi, whose hardline government faces one of the boldest challenges from young protesters calling for its ouster, appealed to the “deceived youth” to repent so they can be pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader, Reuters said. 

He told a crowd assembled at Tehran’s expansive Azadi Square: “the Iranian people will embrace them with open arms.”

His live televised speech, however, was interrupted on the internet for about a minute, with a logo appearing on the screen of a group of anti-Iranian government hackers that goes by the name of “Edalate Ali (Justice for Ali).”

A voice shouted “Death to the Islamic Republic.”

Nationwide protests swept Iran following the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police.

Security forces have embarked on crackdown to the protests, among the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution ended 2,500 years of monarchy.