CNN
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Iran has executed a man for wounding a militia officer in the first known execution linked to protests that have swept the country since September, state media reported Thursday.
Mizan Online, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, and the semi-official Tasmin News Agency both named the protester as Mohsen Shekari. He was reportedly convicted of “war against God” for stabbing a member of the Basij paramilitary group during a protest in Tehran on September 23.
According to Mizan Online, Shekari was sentenced to death on October 23 and executed by hanging on Thursday morning. It was the first execution linked to a protest publicly reported by state media.
Iran Human Rights, a non-profit rights group with national and international members, is pushing for an international response to executions.
“His execution must be met with the strongest possible conditions and an international response. will be,” Mahmoud Amily Moghadam, head of the group, told CNN.
Amiry-Moghaddam said Shekari was executed in a “show trial” by a revolutionary court without due process or access to a lawyer of his choice.
Several European governments strongly criticized Iran for the executions. German Foreign Minister Annalena Beerbock said in a tweet that Shekari was “tried in an emergency court of dishonesty and executed for opposing the regime.”
“The Iranian regime’s inhumanity knows no bounds,” she said. “But the threat of execution does not stifle the people’s desire for freedom.”
French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said France condemned the executions “in the strongest terms” and “reiterated its strongest commitment to the right to peaceful protest”. She said the demands made by protesters were “legitimate and must be heard.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley said he was “outraged by the tragic news of the first execution of a protester in Iran”, while the foreign ministry of the Czech Republic, which now holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said: , described the news as follows: “It’s appalling,” he said, adding that the “Iranian regime is applying unreasonably disproportionate penalties to instill fear in its people.”
Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday called on the current government to be more lenient with protesters.
In a message preceding Students’ Day on December 7 – the anniversary of the 1953 murder of three college students by Iranian police under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government – the former reformist leader said the government said it needed to listen to the voices of the demonstrators. Too late.
Other Iranian celebrities have also recently called on the government to listen to the protesters and take action to protect them.
Iran’s prominent Sunni cleric Moravi Abdulhamid Ismaelzahi on Tuesday called on the country’s judicial authorities to investigate and prosecute individuals who abuse women in prisons.
Amid nationwide protests in the wake of the death of 22-year-old Masa Amini, who was arrested by state moral police for not wearing the hijab properly, some Iranians have was sentenced to death.
Her death hit the nerves of the Islamic Republic, and prominent celebrities, including top Iranian actor Taraneh Alidusti, came out in support of the movement. The protests then coalesced over various grievances against the dictatorship.
As of November, Iranian authorities were seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in connection with the protests, according to Amnesty International.
At least 458 people have died in unrest since September, according to Norway-based Iranian Human Rights on Wednesday.
CNN cannot independently confirm the number of people facing execution in Iran, or the latest number of arrests or deaths related to the protests.
Since the demonstrations began, authorities have carried out a deadly crackdown, with reports of forced detention and physical abuse being used to target the country’s Kurdish minority group.
A recent CNN investigation found secret testimony of sexual violence against protesters, including boys, in Iran’s detention centers since the riots began.
Iran’s supreme leader, meanwhile, has praised the role of the Basij, part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the crackdown, describing the protests as “rioters” and “thugs” backed by foreign forces.
In late November, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Iran was in a “genuine human rights crisis” and called for an independent investigation into human rights violations in the country.
