Iran protests: At least a dozen people currently at 'risk of execution'

Tehran: Amid ongoing anti-hijab protests in Iran, dozens could face execution for taking part in demonstrations being held over the murder of Mahsa Amini, according to reports.

As many as 15 people are currently facing trail in Karaj, informed Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad on Twitter.

Among these are three 17-year-old boys and doctor and his wife.

Demonstrations have swept Iran for nearly three months since Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, died in custody after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict hijab dress code for women.

Iran carried out its first known execution on Thursday over the protests that have shaken the regime since September, sparking an international outcry and warnings from rights groups that more hangings are imminent.

Mohsen Shekari, 23, had been convicted and sentenced to death for blocking a street and wounding a paramilitary during the early phase of the protests, after a legal process denounced as a show trial by rights groups.

At least a dozen other people are currently at risk of execution after being sentenced to hang in connection with the protests, human rights groups have warned.

The protests, described by the authorities as “riots”, are posing the biggest challenge to the Islamic republic since it was established following the ouster of the shah in 1979.

“Mohsen Shekari, a rioter who blocked Sattar Khan Street in Tehran on September 25 and wounded one of the security guards with a machete, was executed this morning,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

Amnesty International said it was “horrified” by the execution, which followed Shekari’s condemnation in a “grossly unfair sham trial”.

“His execution exposes the inhumanity of Iran’s so-called justice system”, where many others face “the same fate,” the group added.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR), urged a strong international reaction otherwise “we will face mass execution of protesters”.

“Mohsen Shekari was executed after a hasty and unfair trial without a lawyer,” he said.

Iran’s Fars news agency carried a video report of Shekari talking about the attack while in detention, which IHR described as a “forced confession” with his face “visibly injured”.

(With inputs from AFP)

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