Published on: 08/12/2022 – 08:48 Modified on: 08/12/2022 – 13:50
An Iranian man accused of injuring a paramilitary man after blocking traffic on a street in Tehran during protests that have rocked the country for nearly three months was executed on Thursday, according to Mizan Online, the judiciary body.
Iranian authorities on Thursday (8 December) executed a man accused of injuring a paramilitary force after he blocked traffic on a street in Tehran during unrest that has been sweeping the country for nearly three months. so Mizan Online, the agency of the judiciary.
“Mohsen Shekari, a rioter who blocked Sattar Khan Boulevard on September 25 and stabbed a Bassij with a machete, was executed in Tehran on Thursday morning,” Mizan said online.
A total of eleven people are risking the same fate for taking part in the demonstrations.
02:53 Iran: first execution of a man involved in the riots © France24
“The Iranian regime’s contempt for humanity knows no bounds,” Germany reacted on Thursday, while France pronounced “its strongest condemnation”.
This man, Mohsen Shekari, was “tried and executed in a perfidious and hasty trial because he did not agree with the regime,” Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Twitter. “But the threat of execution will not stifle people’s desire for freedom,” she added.
The Iranian regime’s inhumanity knows no bounds. #MoshenShekari was sentenced & executed in a perfidious summary trial for disagreeing with the regime. But the threat of execution will not suffocate people’s desire for freedom.
— Minister Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) December 8, 2022
Paris noted that “this execution comes on top of other serious and unacceptable violations,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said during a news conference.
“We recall our strongest ties to the right to peacefully demonstrate,” she added, stressing that the protesters’ aspirations “are legitimate and must be heard.”
Iran is the scene of a protest movement sparked by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died three days after being arrested by vice squads for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code of the veil for women.
According to the Judiciary Agency, Mohsen Shekari had been accused of being an “enemy of God” and convicted by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on November 1. His appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court on November 20, making the sentence enforceable.
The judicial authority specifies that Mohsen Shekari was found guilty of “drawing his weapon with the intention of killing, causing terror and disturbing the order and security of society”.
“He intentionally stabbed a Basij, who needed 13 stitches in the performance of his duty, and blocked Sattar Khan Street in Tehran,” the agency added.
According to Mizan Online, “Shekari then attempted to flee but was arrested by law enforcement.”
In his confession, according to the judicial authority, he said: “After my work in Narmak district (eastern Tehran), I went to Sattar Khan district (western) by motorcycle with Ali (his accomplice) and we closed the crossing for cars .”
“Hit a Security Guard”
“Ali gave me a machete and said, ‘If you meet a guard, I’ll pay you well,'” he added. The court did not say whether Ali was arrested.
The injured Bassij said he saw “two large men trying to block the road and one of them was holding a machete forcing the blocked motorists to chant slogans” against the authorities at the intersection.
“I got off the motorcycle and went to the accused. When I asked him what he was doing, he attacked me and injured my shoulder,” said this member of the Bassidji militia, which is linked to the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.
On Tuesday, Iran’s judiciary handed down the death penalty to five people for killing a paramilitary during demonstrations, bringing the number of death sentences to 11.
Since the demonstrations began in mid-September, authorities have denounced “unrest,” regularly accusing the United States and its Western allies, as well as Kurdish groups based abroad, of instigating this unprecedented protest movement.
Thousands of people, including journalists, actors and lawyers, were arrested during the protests.
According to official figures from the Iranian judiciary, more than 2,000 people have been charged since the protests began, half of them in Tehran.
The Supreme National Security Council said Saturday that “more than 200 people,” including civilians and security forces, had been killed. A Revolutionary Guard general had previously reported more than 300 dead.
With AFP