Iran hangs two men for allegedly killing a member of the protection forces agent during protests
Iran hanged two men on Saturday for allegedly killing a member of the protection forces at some point of nationwide protests that determined the dying of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, drawing condemnation from the EU, the United States and different Western nations.
The two guys carried out on Saturday had been convicted of killing a member of the Basij paramilitary strain militia. Three others have been sentenced to loss of existence in the equal case, while eleven received penal complex sentences.
“Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, principle perpetrators of the crime that led to the unjust martyrdom of Ruhollah Ajamian had been hanged this morning,” the judiciary referred to in a announcement carried with the aid of way of the respectable IRNA records agency.
The modern executions deliver to 4 the range of protesters formally viewed to have been executed in the aftermath of the unrest.
The European Union’s pinnacle diplomat on Saturday condemned the executions and acknowledged as on Iran to barring extend supply up carrying out demise sentences in opposition to protestors, and annul existing sentences.
“This is yet every other signal of the Iranian authorities’ violent repression of civilian demonstrations,” Josep Borrell said in a statement.
The U.S. one-of-a-kind envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, moreover condemned the executions, announcing they accompanied “sham trials.” “These executions need to stop,” Malley stated on Twitter.
British Foreign Minister James Cleverly on Saturday condemned the executions and advised Iran to “immediately provide up the violence in opposition to its personal people.”
The French distant places ministry referred to as the executions “revolting” and advised Iranian authorities to heed the “legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people.”
The Dutch authorities stated it would summon Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands for the 2nd time in a month to increase its worries over the execution of demonstrators, and entreated specific EU nations to do the same.
Amnesty International said final month that Iranian authorities are searching for the loss of life penalty for at least 26 others in what it referred to as “sham trials designed to intimidate protesters”.
It cited all of these going thru loss of existence sentences had been denied the right to enough defence and get proper of entry to to lawyers of their choosing. Rights companies say defendants have rather had to depend quantity on state-appointed attorneys who do little to defend them.
Amnesty mentioned the court docket that convicted Karami, a 22-year-old karate champion, relied on compelled confessions.
Hosseini’s lawyer Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani cited in a Dec. 18 tweet that Hosseini had been severely tortured and that confessions extracted under torture had no felony basis.
He mentioned Hosseini was overwhelmed with his hands and ft tied up, kicked in the head until he surpassed out, and subjected to electric powered powered shocks on distinct components of his body.
Iran denies that confessions are extracted below torture.
Mahsa Amini died in custody in September after being arrested by means of morality police imposing the Islamic Republic’s mandatory costume code laws. The protests that ensued symbolize one of the largest challenges to the Islamic Republic in view that its institution in 1979.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday named hardline police professional Ahmad Reza Radan as the new countrywide police commander, kingdom media reported.
Radan, who was placed below U.S. sanctions in 2010 for human rights violations, has frequently recognised as for strict enforcement of the country’s Islamic costume code for ladies in the path of his formerly police positions.
The Basij force, affiliated with Iran’s effective Revolutionary Guards, has been at the back of a extremely good deal of the crackdown in opposition to protesters.
Iran, which has blamed the unrest on its foreign places foes which consist of the United States, sees its crackdown of protests as retaining countrywide sovereignty.
The rights crew HRANA said that as of Friday, 517 protesters had been killed at some stage in unrest, consisting of 70 minors. It stated sixty eight contributors of the security forces had also been killed.
As many as 19,262 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it said.
Iranian officers have mentioned that up to 300 people, consisting of participants of the safety forces, have died.
The first protester recognized to be completed was 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari on Dec. 8, less than three months after his arrest. He used to be accused of burning a trash bin, blockading a road, stabbing a member of the Basij militia with a machete and threatening public safety.
Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, used to be hanged from a crane in public on Dec. 12 in the northeastern city of Mashhad, tons less than a month after his arrest. He used to be accused of stabbing to loss of life two Basij contributors and wounding four different human beings in Mashhad.