Iran publicly carries out second protest-related execution

Video length 02 minutes 12 seconds 02:12

Tehran, Iran – Iran publicly executed a second man who was arrested during unrest related to ongoing protests in the country.

The judiciary news website announced Monday morning that Majidreza Rahnavard, convicted of killing two members of the security forces, was executed at an unidentified public location in Mashhad as a group of people looked on.

He posted several images of the public execution, showing a man, with his hands bound, hanging by his neck from a crane. He was shown masked security forces cordoning off the area, with a crowd of dozens watching from behind the barricades.

Iran executed the first protest-related detainee on Thursday, a 23-year-old named Mohsen Shekari, for allegedly attacking and wounding a member of the Basij paramilitary force with a long knife in central Tehran.

Like the Shekari case, Monday’s execution was meant to show the speed with which the Iranian judiciary is moving forward on protest-related cases, as Rahnavard was executed less than a month after his arrest.

The judiciary claimed that Rahnavard carried out a “terrorist” act against two Basij members on November 17. He was reportedly arrested two days later for “making war against God.”

State television broadcast footage showing a man standing up and stabbing a man who had fallen to the ground next to a parked motorcycle.

Another man charges at the assailant and is also stabbed before the assailant flees. The judiciary said the assailant was Rahnavard, who also allegedly injured four other people as he fled.

After the execution, Gholamali Sadeghi, chief justice of northeastern Razavi Khorasan, thanked the police, security and court officials for carrying out the sentence as soon as possible and for “responding to public demands to establish order and security and deal with troublemakers and the law. -breakers”.

Judicial spokesman Masoud Setayeshi, who appeared on state television Saturday night, defended Shekari’s execution on Thursday.

Anyone who uses a “hot or cold weapon with the intent to harm people’s lives, property or family or to terrorize them” could be convicted of moharebeh, or “making war against God,” which carries the death penalty. he warned.

Iran’s protests began in mid-September following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly not adhering to a mandatory dress code.

Foreign-based human rights organizations have said more than 450 people have been killed during the protests, more than the 200 death toll provided by Iran, which denies its security forces fired on protesters.

Human rights groups warned that more people arrested in connection with the protests could soon be executed.

‘instill fear’

The death sentence of Mahan Sadrat Madani, a 22-year-old man convicted of “waging war against God”, has been temporarily suspended, but there has been no confirmation of its completion.

After Shekari’s execution, Amnesty International condemned the move, saying that “the clear objective of the Iranian authorities is to instill fear among the public in a desperate attempt to cling to power and put an end to the popular uprising.”

The UN Human Rights Council voted last month 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.

There will be a vote on Wednesday to expel Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which UN Watch has predicted will pass overwhelmingly amid Tehran’s objections.

In recent days, Australia and New Zealand joined the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada in blacklisting various Iranian officials and entities for their response to the protests, something Tehran condemned.