PARIS —
Several
Iranians were on Sunday at risk of imminent execution over protests
that have rocked the country’s clerical regime, rights groups warned, after an
international backlash over Iran’s first hanging linked to the movement.
اضافة اعلان
The almost three-month protest movement was
sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the Islamic
republic’s morality police.
It is posing the biggest challenge to the
regime since the shah’s ousting in 1979.
Iran calls the protests “riots” and says they
have been encouraged by its foreign foes.
Authorities are responding with a crackdown
activists say aims to instill fear in the public.
Iran on Thursday executed Mohsen Shekari, 23,
who had been convicted of attacking a member of the security forces. Rights
groups said his legal process, which they described as a show trial, was marked
by undue haste.
Iran’s judiciary has reported that 11 people
received death sentences so far in connection with the protests, but
campaigners say around a dozen others are facing charges that could see them
also receive the death penalty.
Unless foreign governments “significantly
increase” the diplomatic and economic costs to Iran, the world “is sending a
green light to this carnage”, said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New
York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Amnesty International said Iran was now
“preparing to execute” Mahan Sadrat, 22, just a month after his “grossly
unfair” trial. He was convicted of drawing a knife in the protests, accusations
he strongly denied in court.
On Saturday Sadrat was transferred from
Greater Tehran Prison to
Rajai Shahr prison in the nearby city of Karaj,
“sparking concerns that his execution may be carried out imminently”, Amnesty
said.
‘Show
trial’
“Like
all other death row prisoners, he was denied any access to his lawyer during
the interrogations, proceedings, and show trial,” said another group,
Oslo-based Iran Human Rights.
Amnesty warned the life of another young man
arrested over the protests, Sahand Nourmohammadzadeh, was also at risk “after a
fast-tracked proceeding which did not resemble a trial”.
He was sentenced to death in November on
accusations of “tearing down highway railings and setting fire to rubbish cans
and tires”, the group said.
Among others given the same sentence is
rapper
Saman Seyedi, 24, from Iran’s Kurdish minority. His mother pleaded for
his life on social media in a video where she stated “my son is an artist not a
rioter”.
Another dissident rapper, Toomaj Salehi, who
expressed support for anti-regime protests, is charged with “corruption on
earth” and could face a death sentence, Iranian judicial authorities confirmed
last month.
“We fear for the life of Iranian artists who have
been indicted on charges carrying the death penalty,” UN experts said in a
statement, referring to the cases of Sayedi and Salehi.
Amnesty and IHR have also raised the case of
Hamid Gharehasanlou, a medical doctor sentenced to death. They say he was tortured
in custody and his wife was coerced into giving evidence against him which she
later sought to retract.
“Protester executions can only be prevented
by raising their political cost for the Islamic Republic,” IHR director Mahmood
Amiry-Moghaddam said, calling for a “stronger than ever” international
response.
The US, EU members, and UK strongly condemned
the execution of Shekari. German Foreign Minister
Annalena Baerbock said it
showed a “boundless contempt for human life”.
Iran on Saturday and Friday again summoned
the British and German ambassadors to protest their countries’ actions, marking
the 15th time in less than three months Tehran has called in foreign envoys as
the demonstrations continue.
Many activists want the foreign response to
go further, extending even to severing diplomatic ties with Iran and expelling
Tehran’s envoys from European capitals.
After the widespread international outrage at
Shekari’s execution, Iran said it was exercising restraint, both in the
response by security forces, and the “proportionality” of the judicial process.
Iran’s use of the death penalty is part of a
crackdown that IHR says has left at least 458 people killed by the security
forces.
According to the UN, at least 14,000 have
been arrested.
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