2024-01-23 10:06:02
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran hanged another prisoner on Tuesday for crimes committed during national protests that erupted in 2022 following the death of a young woman detained for not wearing her hair properly covered.
The inmate, Mohammad Qobadlu, had been convicted of killing a police officer and injuring five others by running over them with his car during a march in the town of Parand, near the capital, Tehran, according to a report on state television.
Qobadlu, 23, had confessed to the crime and had access to a lawyer during the trial, according to the report. The prisoner had appealed the death sentence imposed by a lower court, but the Supreme Court upheld the original verdict.
This is the ninth execution reported by authorities since protests began in the fall of 2022, according to a count by The Associated Press.
The months of unrest erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died while in custody on September 16, 2022 after being detained by the Iranian morality police, supposedly because she was not wearing the hijab, a garment that covers the hair.
At least 529 people died and tens of thousands were arrested in the demonstrations. The protests gradually subsided early last year.
In December, Iran executed a bank guard convicted of shooting dead a prominent religious figure last April. Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani, 77, was the most prominent cleric killed since the protests and subsequent crackdown on demonstrators. The motive for the shooting was not explained.
Although the Shiite clergy has long played an important role in Iran, especially since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, discontent has grown in recent years during waves of protests over economic, political and civil rights issues.
Iran hanged Milad Zhohrevand, 21, in the western town of Hamadan in November for shooting dead a member of the Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force, during protests.
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