- Writing
- BBC News World
image source, Iranian state media
Seyed Mohammad Hosseini fronte al tribunal.
Two men were executed by hanging in Iran on Saturday for allegedly killing a soldier during massive protests in the country.
Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini were found guilty of “spread corruption on Earth”a crime considered capital in Iran.
Human rights groups denounced the trial of those executed, describing it as “shameful”.
The family of Karami, 22, says that they were not allowed to see him before his execution.
Prosecutors claimed that paramilitary officer Ruhollah Ajamian was stripped naked and killed by a group of people paying tribute to a slain protester.
The human cost of protests
Protests once morest the Iranian clerical elite broke out in September following the death of the young Mahsa Amini in the custody of the moral police, allegedly arrested for wearing her hijab, or Islamic headscarf, in an “improper” way.
image source, Courtesy of the family of Mahsa Amini
Mahsa Amini died on September 16, three days following she collapsed in a detention center run by the so-called morality police.
At least 516 protesters have died since thenincluding 70 children.
Another 19,262 people have been arrested, according to the humanitarian organization Human Rights Activists’s News Agency (HRANA). The death of 68 members of security personnel is also reported.
Various reports indicate that many arrested following the protests have been subjected to forced disappearances, incommunicado detention, torture and other mistreatment.
“Unfair and expedited trial”
The men were sentenced to death in December 2022, but appealed once morest their sentences, claiming they were tortured into confessing falsehoods.
Lawyers representing Hosseini said that they beat him and blindfolded him while he was in prison.
“He was tasered and hit the soles of his feet with a metal bar,” said lawyer Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani.
Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentence on January 3.
Before his death, Karami’s lawyer said he was on a hunger strike because he had been denied the right to choose his own lawyer for court proceedings. Instead, he turned to state-appointed lawyers.
International Amnesty He described the process as an “expedited unfair group trial” and said Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 26 other people.
Three other men were sentenced to death in the same case and 11 others received prison terms.
image source, IH Rights
Majidreza Rahnavard was executed 23 days following his arrest in December.
Four have been executed by hanging in Iran since December.
In December, 23-year-old Majidreza Rhnavard was publicly hanged from a crane for allegedly killing two members of the security forces with a knife and wounding four others.
Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed for allegedly blocking a street and stabbing a member of Iran’s Basij force.
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