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Tag: 2022 Iran protests

  • Iran protests: 400 people face prison sentence following involvement in Tehran unrest

    400 people detained during anti-government protests have received prison sentences of up to 10 years from Tehran’s courts, a judiciary official reports.

    According to Tehran’s prosecutor general, 80 “rioters” received sentences between two and five years, while 160 received sentences of two years or less, according to the Mizan news agency.

    Without giving further details, Ali Alqasimehr added that another 70 people had been fined.

    It occurs a day after authorities hanged a second man who was found guilty of inciting riots.

    The judiciary announced on Monday morning that Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, had been executed in public in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.

    A Revolutionary Court convicted him less than two weeks ago of the charge of “enmity against God” after finding he had stabbed to death two members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force.

    Amnesty International said he was subjected to a sham trial and that the judiciary was “a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on protesters daring to stand up to the status quo”.

    Iran has been engulfed by protests against the country’s clerical establishment for almost three months.

    They erupted following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police in Tehran on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

    Authorities have portrayed the protests as foreign-backed “riots” and responded with lethal force.

    So far, at least 490 protesters, including 68 children and 62 security personnel have been killed during the unrest, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA).

    It has also reported the arrest of more than 18,200 people in connection with the protests, of whom 3,780 have been identified.

    Authorities have not revealed how many have been arrested nationwide.

    However, judiciary officials announced in early November that 1,024 people had been charged in connection with the protests in Tehran. They said the suspects were accused of “acts of sabotage”, including “assaulting or martyring security guards” and “setting fire to public property”.

    Last Thursday, authorities in Tehran executed a 23-year-old man convicted of “enmity against God” following what activists said was a grossly unfair trial. Mohsen Shekari was accused of stabbing and wounding a Basij member and blocking a street in the capital in September.

    After Majidreza Rahnavard was hanged on Monday, Amnesty International said it had identified at least 20 other people at risk of execution.

    According to the group, 11 individuals have been sentenced to death, three have undergone trials on capital charges and are either at risk of being sentenced to death or may have already been sentenced, and six may be awaiting or undergoing trial on capital charges.

    The final category includes 26-year-old professional footballer Amir Reza Nasr Azadani, who a judiciary official in Isfahan province said on Sunday had been charged with “baghi”, or “armed revolt”.

    Mr Nasr Azadani is accused of killing three security personnel in the city of Isfahan during protests on 16 November.

    On Monday night, the global football players’ union FIFPRO said it was “shocked and sickened” that he was facing a possible death sentence “after campaigning for women’s rights and basic freedom in his country”.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

    Prominent former Iran national team player Ali Karimi, who has backed the protests, tweeted: “Do no execute Amir.”

    Another former member of the national team, Voria Ghafouri, was arrested last month but was later released on bail.

    Source: Aljazeera.com 

  • Iran sees first protest-related execution

    Iran has revealed the first public execution of a person convicted of a crime related to the country’s ongoing protests.

    The man executed was identified as Mohsen Shekari by the Iranian judiciary’s official news website on Thursday.

    He was found guilty of “waging war against God” after allegedly stabbing a security guard with a knife and closing down a street in Tehran.

    The judiciary said there was just over a month between the man’s first court session and his execution, demonstrating the speed with which Iranian authorities have vowed to prosecute cases linked with “riots,” as they frequently describe incidents related to the protests.

     

    The 23-year-old Shekari was arrested on September 25, just over a week after protests erupted across Iran following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly not adhering to Iran’s mandatory dress code for women.

    Shekari received his preliminary death sentence on November 20, and it was carried out on Thursday morning shortly after being upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.

    According to alleged confessions released by the judiciary, Shekari was accompanied – and given a long knife – by an associate referred to as “Ali” who offered him “good money to participate in the riots”.

    Shekari allegedly helped closed off a street in the busy neighbourhood of Sattarkhan in central Tehran, before injuring a security officer by striking him in the shoulder blade.

    “Creating terror and fear and depriving people of their freedom and security” were also among his charges.

    Amnesty International had warned earlier this month that at least 28 people could face execution in Iran in connection with the protests, saying “authorities use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to end the popular uprising”.

     

    Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei had said earlier this week that “some” of the previous death sentences for “corruption on Earth” and “waging war against God” in relation to the protests had been upheld by the Supreme Court and “will be carried out soon”.

    The first publicly announced death sentence related to the protests was issued on November 14, with the latest coming on Tuesday when five people were sentenced to death for allegedly killing a member of the Basij paramilitary force.

    Another 11, including three minors, received lengthy prison terms in that case.

    Iran executed four people and handed prison terms to three others accused of working with Israeli intelligence earlier this week in a case that appeared to be unrelated to the protests.

    United Nations human rights experts have called on Iran to stop executing prisoners in relation to the protests, but Iranian authorities have persisted, stating that they need to defend the country against plots by foreign powers, especially the United States, which they accuse of being behind the unrest.

    The UN Human Rights Council last month voted to establish a fact-finding mission to investigate Iran’s handling of the protests, but Tehran said it would not cooperate with the mission due to its “political” nature.

    Tehran has also condemned an upcoming December 14 vote to expel Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which UN Watch has predicted will pass overwhelmingly.

    Thursday’s execution came on the heels of three days of protests and strikes that ended on Wednesday after being called for anonymously online.

    Videos posted online showed protests in Tehran and a number of other cities on Wednesday night. Images of shops closed during strikes have been countered by videos released by state-affiliated media that showed other shops open.

  • Iranian protester faces mock executions in prison – source

    BBC Persian ha reported that  one of the six people sentenced to death in connection with the current anti-government protests in Iran has been subjected to mock executions three times in prison.

    Last month, a Revolutionary Court in Tehran found Sahand Noormohammadzadeh, 26, guilty of “enmity against God.”

    He was accused of setting fire to a bin and obstructing traffic, both of which he denied.

    According to the source, Noormohammadzadeh was “asked to go on a chair blindfolded to be hanged” prior to his trial.

    Cruel or degrading treatment of people in custody is prohibited under international human rights law.

    Iran’s judiciary has announced that six defendants have so far been sentenced to death for either “enmity against God” or “corruption on earth” in connection to the protests.

    It has not disclosed their identities, but Sahand Noormohammadzadeh’s lawyer confirmed in a video statement on Saturday that he was one of them.

    The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported last month that Noormohammadzadeh was on trial before a Revolutionary Court for “[acts of] vandalism and arson of public property with the aim of causing disruption to the country’s peace and order and confronting the Islamic government”.

    Prosecutors accused him of “participating in riots” in Tehran on 23 September and blocking a highway by “tearing down the highway railings and setting fire to rubbish cans and tires”, according to Mizan.

    They showed the court a video showing a man wearing a mask, who they alleged was Noormohammadzadeh, placing the railing between two lanes. The video also shows the same man pushing a burning rubbish bin on to the road.

    Noormohammadzadeh maintained his innocence in court, while his lawyer said there was no evidence that his client was the masked man, Mizan reported.

    It is not clear whether prosecutors submitted to the court a letter of apology signed by Noormohammadzadeh following his arrest.

    BBC Persian’s source said he was told falsely by interrogators that his mother had suffered a heart attack and that he would need to sign the letter if he wanted to talk to her before she died.

    A lawyer in Tehran said such a letter was considered an admission of guilt.

    Following Noormohammadzadeh’s conviction, Amnesty International expressed grave concern that he and the other defendants sentenced to death had been subjected to “sham” trials.

    The death sentences handed to Noormohammadzadeh and the five other defendants can be appealed against, but judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Monday that the executions would happen soon.

    Iranian authorities have cracked down violently on the protests that erupted after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police in mid-September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

    More than 470 protesters, including 64 children, have been killed, while 18,200 others have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 61 security personnel.

    Many of those arrested have allegedly been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in custody.

    Arshia Emamgholizadeh, a 16-year-old boy, took his own life last week, six days after he was released from prison.

    He was arrested in the north-western city of Tabriz and accused of “turban tossing” – a new trend among young protesters that involves sneaking up behind a Shia Muslim cleric on a street and knocking his turban off his head before running off.

    “Arshia said he was given pills in prison and was beaten,” a source close to the family told BBC Persian. It is not known what the pills were.

    Arshia did not leave a note and a video showed his mother crying over his grave and saying: “You were not suicidal, what did they do to you in prison?”

  • Protests in Iran: State-run live TV hacked by protesters

    Iran’s state-run broadcaster was apparently hacked on air Saturday, with a news bulletin interrupted by a protest against the country’s leader.

    A mask appeared on the screen, followed by an image of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with flames around him.

    The group called itself “Adalat Ali”, or Ali’s Justice.

    It comes after at least three people were shot dead when protesters clashed with security forces in new unrest over the death of Mahsa Amini.

    Ms Amini was detained in Tehran by morality police for allegedly not covering her hair properly. The 22-year-old Iranian Kurd died in custody on 16 September, three days after her arrest.

    Her death has sparked an unprecedented wave of protest across the country.

    Saturday’s TV news bulletin was interrupted at about 18:00 local time with images which included Iran’s supreme leader with a target on his head, photos of Ms Amini and three other women killed in recent protests.

    One of the captions read “join us and rise up”, whilst another said “our youths’ blood is dripping off your paws”.

    The interruption lasted only a few seconds before being cut off.

    Such displays of rebellion against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are historically rare, and he wields almost complete power within Iran. But following Ms Amini’s death, there has been some open dissent.

    Also on Saturday, social media videos emerged which seemed to show female students at a university in Tehran chanting “get lost” during a visit by President Ebrahim Raisi.

    Earlier in the day, two people were killed in Sanandaj, including a man shot in his car after he sounded his horn in support of protesters. A video shared online also showed a woman shot in the neck lying unconscious on the ground in Mashhad.

    In Sanandaj, a police official said a man had been killed by “counter-revolutionaries”, the state-run news agency IRNA reported.

    On Friday, Iran’s Forensic Medicine Organisation said Ms Amini had died from multiple organ failure caused by cerebral hypoxia – and not from blows to the head, as her family and protesters contend.

    Rights groups say more than 150 people have been killed since the protests in the Islamic Republic began on 17 September.

    Shops in several cities have shut in support of the protesters, including in Tehran’s bazaar where some set fire to a police kiosk and chased the security forces away.

    The protests reaching the bazaar in Tehran will ring alarm bells with Iranian leaders who have counted the merchants as among their supporters.

    Source: BBC