Comment on this story
comment
Iran has carried out the first known execution of a prisoner detained during months of protests that have rocked the country since the alleged police killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, state media reported.
The prisoner – identified by Mizan, the News site of the country’s judiciaryas Mohsen Shekari – was accused of stabbing a paramilitary guard “in a manner that resulted in 13 stabbings” and the disruption of public order by blocking a thoroughfare in the Iranian capital, Tehran, during the protests. He was executed on Thursday, Mizan said.
The execution marks a clear escalation in the authorities’ bloody crackdown on the protest movement, which began in September in response to Amini’s death in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police, but has intensified over the past two months to reflect broader dissatisfaction with the protest movement clerical leadership of the country.
Human rights groups estimate that at least a dozen people have been sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed during the protests. And they warn that more people could face the death penalty after being charged with capital crimes. But experts had said one test of Tehran’s response would be whether it carried out any executions.
Iran imposes first known death sentence linked to an insurgency
“The Iranian authorities have executed a protester who was sentenced to death in show trials without due process.” tweeted Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights. “His name is #MohsenShekari – He was hanged this morning.”
His execution “must be [met] with STRONG reactions, otherwise we will face executions of protesters on a daily basis,” wrote Amiry-Moghaddam. “This execution must quickly have practical consequences internationally.”
Shekari was convicted on November 20 of “moharebeh,” a capital crime that means “waging war against God” in Farsi, and sentenced to death by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Mizan said. Shekari’s lawyers’ request to appeal his sentence was reportedly denied.
The execution comes amid a three-day labor strike, the largest the country has seen in decades, which has increased pressure on Iranian authorities to respond.
Analysis: The Iranian regime is at an impasse as the protest movement resists the crackdown
According to Mizan, who cited the indictment, Shekari was arrested on September 25 in Tehran’s Sattarkhan area. He was reportedly blocking the road and holding a knife.
Shekari then attacked a member of the Basij, a volunteer militia affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, striking his left shoulder and injuring him “in a manner that resulted in 13 stab wounds.”
Political prisoners are typically tried in Revolutionary Courts, a parallel legal system designed to protect the Iranian regime, resulting in a justice system stacked against the protesters.
Human Rights Watch said last year that courts “regularly fall short of fair trials and are likely to use confessions obtained under torture as evidence in court.”