Iran mentioned Thursday it had executed an individual arrested over the monthslong protests gripping the nation, the primary identified loss of life penalty carried out associated to the unrest.
The information prompted an outcry from activists who feared it could possibly be the primary of many because the regime engages in a violent crackdown towards the demonstrations.
Mohsen Shekari was one among 11 folks identified to have been sentenced to loss of life in relation to the protests, which have posed the most important problem to the Islamic Republic’s ruling clerical institution because it got here to energy in a 1979 revolution.
He was hanged after being convicted of “waging warfare towards God” — particularly blocking a Tehran road and injuring a pro-regime Basij militia member with a machete — the Mizan information company, which is run by the judiciary, reported early Thursday.
It mentioned he was tried by Tehran’s Revolutionary Courtroom, which has been criticized internationally by human rights teams for holding opaque present trials the place defendants aren’t allowed to see the proof towards them.
The regime has been utilizing violent techniques on the streets in an try to suppress anti-government protests which have induced upheaval for nearly three months.
The unrest broke out in mid-September when a younger lady, Mahsa Amini, died in hospital three days after being arrested by the nation’s morality police for allegedly breaking strict costume code legal guidelines.
No less than 475 folks have been killed and 18,000 others arrested, in line with the watchdog Human Rights Activists in Iran, which is predicated simply exterior Washington. Iran’s inside ministry mentioned Saturday the loss of life toll was 200, together with safety forces who have been killed.
Thursday’s information has been met with horror by activists, who condemned the shortage of transparency in Shekari’s court docket case and feared it could possibly be the primary in a string of executions. It “should be met with STRONG reactions in any other case we might be going through each day executions of protesters,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Oslo-based activist group Iran Human Rights, said in a tweet.
He known as it a “present trial with none due course of” and mentioned there wanted to be “fast sensible penalties” internationally, with out specifying what steps he wished taken.
“Mohsen gave his life for freedom. He wished a traditional life. Another courageous soul killed by this bloody regime,” Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist residing in Brooklyn, tweeted.
He was arrested Sept. 25 in Tehran’s Sattar Khan district, in line with the Mizan information company, which mentioned he blocked the road, held a machete given to him by a good friend, and injured a militiaman, who it mentioned wanted 13 stitches.
The information company alleged that Shekari was supplied cash to wield the machete and participate within the protests. Iranian officers have for months been in search of to allege, with out providing proof, that overseas states have been behind the unrest, somewhat than Iranian residents indignant over the nation’s points.
No particulars of the case have been confirmed exterior of the data given by Iran’s authorities. Amnesty Worldwide and different human rights teams say the authoritarian nation holds “unfair trials” and makes use of loss of life sentences by hanging as “a weapon of repression towards protesters, dissidents and ethnic minorities.”
Iran executed 314 folks final yr, essentially the most on the planet after China, in line with information compiled by Amnesty.
The Related Press contributed.
