CNN —
An Iranian court has handed down the first death sentence linked to the recent protests, convicting the unnamed person of “enmity against God” and “spreading corruption on earth,” state media report.
It follows weeks of nationwide demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in September.
Iran’s Revolutionary Court handed down the verdict on a protester who allegedly set fire to a government building, state media reported.
They were convicted of “disturbing public order and peace, the community and conspiring to commit a crime against national security, war and corruption on Earth, war by arson and premeditated destruction,” according to the state news agency IRNA on Sunday.
Five other participants in the protests were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison for “collaborating in a crime against national security and disturbing public order”.
IRNA added that these decisions are preliminary and subject to appeal. The news agency did not name the protester who received the death sentence, nor did it give details of when or where he committed the alleged crime.
Iran has been rocked by anti-regime protests since September, the largest dissent demonstration in recent years, sparked by outrage over the death of Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was arrested by vice squads for allegedly disloyalty to her hijab carries.
Iranian authorities have since launched a crackdown on protesters, charging at least 1,000 people in Tehran province with their alleged involvement.
Security forces have killed at least 326 people since the protests began two months ago, according to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.
That number includes 43 children and 25 women, the group said in an update of its death toll on Saturday, saying its published number represented an “absolute minimum”.
CNN cannot independently verify the number due to the suppression of non-state media, the internet and protest movements in Iran. The death toll varies depending on the opposition groups, international human rights organizations and journalists following the ongoing protests.
Despite threats of arrest — and stiffer penalties for those involved — Iranian celebrities and athletes have rallied to support the anti-government protests in recent weeks.
On Friday, United Nations experts urged the Iranian authorities to “stop charging people with the death penalty for participating or allegedly participating in peaceful demonstrations” and “to stop using the death penalty as a means of cracking down on protests.”