Iran has executed a man arrested in ongoing anti-government protests sweeping the nation, according to state media, the first known use of the death penalty in connection with the unrest as rights teams warn of mock trials and intimidation tactics through a regime on the move to undo one of the most demanding situations of its rule in decades.
Iran said it executed Mohsen Shekari as part of nationwide anti-regime protests that have occurred across the country in recent months, according to several media outlets that cited Iranian state media.
Shekari was reportedly hanged on Thursday morning after being convicted of “waging war on God” under Iranian Sharia law, Islam’s legal system.
Shekari reportedly blocked a street and injured a security guard with a machete in riots in the Iranian capital of Tehran in September.
Shekari reportedly appealed the verdict, which was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court in late November.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, head of Iran’s Oslo-based human rights group, condemned Shekari’s execution, saying he had been “sentenced to death in exhibition trials without due process. “
Shekari’s execution will have to have “swift practical consequences at the foreign level,” he added.
Civil unrest has rocked Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September in the custody of the country’s morality police. Badly beaten and died from her injuries, the government says Amini died of an attack on the centre or an underlying illness. The women-led protests have spread across the country and internationally, and constitute one of the most demanding situations facing the Iranian regime in decades. The government violently suppressed the protests, which it described as “riots” caused by foreign influence. Human rights teams such as Amnesty International have warned that the Iranian government will push for the death penalty through mock trials as a scare tactic to suppress opposition and suppress the uprising. The regime has reportedly disbanded the morality police and is considering amending hijab legislation requiring women to wear the veil.
According to Amnesty, at least 28 other people, in addition to 3 children, could be executed in connection with the protests. At least six other people have already been sentenced to death in “mock trials,” the human rights organization said.
At least 475. This is the number of other people killed in connection with protests in Iran since Wednesday, according to the human rights activists news agency. At least 65 youths were killed and more than 18,000 people arrested, the organization said.
Mahsa Amini: The spark that ignited a women-led revolution (Forbes)