News Asia
Iran Executes First Anti-Government Protester
(CTN NEWS) – Iran announced on Thursday that it had executed a person detained in connection with the months-long protests that gripped the nation, marking the first known execution associated with the turmoil.
Some Western governments and activists expressed outrage over the news, fearing it would be the first of many deadly crackdowns by the authorities on the protests.
The protests, which have presented the strongest threat to the Islamic Republic’s governing clerical establishment since it came to power in a 1979 revolution, resulted in the death sentences of 11 people, including Mohsen Shekari.
People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police” in Tehran, Iran, September 21, 2022.
According to the judiciary-run Mizan news agency, he was executed after being found guilty of “waging war against God,” specifically for obstructing a Tehran street and cutting a Basij militia member who supported the regime.
According to the report, he was tried by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, which has come under fire from human rights organizations worldwide for staging secretive show trials in which defendants are not permitted to view the evidence against them.
Daily Statistics on Iran Protests#MahsaAmini#Iran#IranProtests2022 pic.twitter.com/tOoR2SlWge
— HRANA English (@HRANA_English) December 7, 2022
The leadership has been utilizing brutal measures on the streets to quell the unrest sparked by anti-government protests for almost three months.
Mid-September saw the start of the upheaval after Mahsa Amini, a young woman who the nation’s morality police had detained for allegedly violating the tight dress code, passed away in a hospital three days later.
According to the Washington-area watchdog organization Human Rights Activists in Iran, at least 475 individuals have died, and 18,000 more have been detained.
The death toll, which includes members of the security forces, reached 200, according to the interior ministry of Iran on Saturday.
Activists were horrified by the announcement on Thursday, denouncing the lack of openness in Shekari’s case and worrying that it would be the start of a series of executions.
Director of the activist group Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, tweeted that it “must be met with STRONG replies or we would be facing everyday killings of protestors.”
Execution of #MohsenShekari must be me with STRONG reactions otherwise we will be facing daily executions of protesters. This execution must have rapid practical consequences internationally #StopExecutionsInIran #IranProtests2022
— Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam (@iranhr) December 8, 2022
Without outlining the specific actions he wished to be taken, he branded it a “show trial without any due process” and demanded “quick practical consequences” internationally.
“For freedom, Mohsen gave his life. He wished for a routine life. Another brave person is slain by this bloody regime, “Brooklyn-based journalist and activist Masih Alinejad tweeted.
https://twitter.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1600747137712947201
Iran’s “contempt for humanity” is “boundless,” tweeted the foreign minister of Germany, Annalena Baerbock.
However, she warned the dictatorship, saying that “the prospect of execution would not strangle people’s thirst for freedom.” She denounced the legal procedures as a fake trial.
James Cleverly, the British foreign minister, wrote on Twitter that the news had him “outraged.” The horrific brutality carried out by the Iranian leadership on its people; he warned, “cannot be ignored by the world.”
https://twitter.com/JamesCleverly/status/1600840247683579905
According to the Mizan news agency, Shekari was apprehended on September 25 in Tehran’s Sattar Khan district after blocking the street with a machete that a buddy had given him and injuring a militiaman who required 13 stitches.
According to the news agency, Shekari received payment to use the machete and participate in the demonstrations.
Iranian officials have been attempting for months to claim—without providing any proof—that the turmoil is the result of foreign governments, not disgruntled Iranians.
Outside of the information provided by Iran’s officials, no specifics of the case have been confirmed.
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations claim that the totalitarian government utilizes hanging as a “weapon of repression against protestors, dissidents, and ethnic minorities” and holds “unfair trials.”
According to data gathered by Amnesty, Iran executed 314 people last year, the second-highest number in the world after China.
RELATED CTN NEWS:
Xi’s Visit Deepens Saudi-China Ties With Huawei Contract
