Iran hangs two men accused of killing security official during protests
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[January 07, 2023]
(Reuters) -Iran hanged two men on Saturday for allegedly
killing a security official during nationwide protests that followed the
death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16.
The two men executed on Saturday had been convicted of killing a member
of the Basij paramilitary force militia. Three others have been
sentenced to death in the same case, while 11 received prison sentences.
"Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, principle
perpetrators of the crime that led to the unjust martyrdom of Ruhollah
Ajamian were hanged this morning," the judiciary said in a statement
carried by the official IRNA news agency.
The latest executions bring to four the number of protesters officially
known to have been executed in the aftermath of the unrest.
Amnesty International said last month that Iranian authorities are
seeking the death penalty for at least 26 others in what it called "sham
trials designed to intimidate protesters in the popular uprising that
has rocked the country".
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It said all of those facing death sentences had been denied the right to
adequate defence and access to lawyers of their choosing. Rights groups
say defendants have instead had to rely on state-appointed attorneys who
do little to defend them.
Amnesty said the court that convicted Karami, a 22-year-old karate
champion, relied on forced confessions.
Hosseini's lawyer Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani said in a Dec. 18 tweet that
Hosseini had been severely tortured and that confessions extracted under
torture had no legal basis.
He said Hosseini was beaten with his hands and feet tied up, kicked in
the head until he passed out, and subjected to electric shocks on
different parts of his body.
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Iran denies that confessions are extracted under torture.
Mahsa Amini died in custody in September after being arrested by
morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic's mandatory dress
code laws. The protests that ensued represent one of the biggest
challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.
The Basij force, affiliated with Iran's powerful Revolutionary
Guards, has been behind much of the crackdown.
Iran, which has blamed the unrest on its foreign foes including the
United States, sees its crackdown of protests as preserving national
sovereignty.
The rights group HRANA said that as of Friday, 517 protesters had
been killed during unrest, including 70 minors. It said 68 members
of the security forces had also been killed.
As many as 19,262 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it
said.
Iranian officials have said that up to 300 people, including members
of the security forces, have died.
The first protester known to be executed was 23-year-old Mohsen
Shekari on Dec. 8, less than three months after his arrest. He was
accused of burning a trash bin, blocking a road, stabbing a member
of the Basij militia with a machete and threatening public safety.
Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged from a crane in public on Dec.
12 in the northeastern city of Mashhad, less than a month after his
arrest. He was accused of stabbing to death two Basij members and
wounding four other people in Mashhad.
(Editing by William Mallard, Simon Cameron-Moore and Frances Kerry)
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