Iran said it executed two men on Saturday convicted of allegedly killing a paramilitary volunteer during a demonstration, the latest executions aimed at stopping nationwide protests now challenging the country’s theocracy.
Iran’s judiciary identified those executed as Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, so four men are known to have been executed since protests began in September over the death of Mahsa Amini. All have faced fast-paced and internationally criticized closed-door trials.
The Mizan judiciary news agency said the men had been convicted of killing Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Basij volunteer force, in the city of Karaj outside Tehran on November 3. The Basij have been deployed in the main cities, attacking and detaining the protesters, who in many cases have fought back.
Women protest the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was detained by the moral police, in Tehran, on Saturday, October 1, 2022.
(AP Photo/Middle East Images, File)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Twitter that Karami and Hosseini were “more than just two names.”
“(They were) hanged by the Iranian regime because they did not want to submit to its brutal and inhumane actions. Two more terrible fates that encourage us to increase pressure on Tehran through the EU,” he wrote.
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Heavily edited footage broadcast on state television showed Karami speaking before a Revolutionary Court about the attack, which also showed a re-enactment of the attack, prosecutors say. The other two death sentences have already been carried out by the Revolutionary Courts of Iran.
The courts do not allow those on trial to choose their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them. Amnesty International has said that the trials “did not resemble a meaningful judicial process”.
State television also carried footage of Karami and Hosseini talking about the attack, though the station for years has broadcast what activists describe as forced confessions.
In this undated photo released Saturday, January 7, 2023 by the official website of the Iranian Supreme Leader’s office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, speaks with General Ahmad Reza Radan, Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei appointed General Radan as the new police chief on Saturday, January 7.
(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
The men were convicted of the murder, as well as “corruption on Earth,” a Qur’anic term and a charge that has been leveled against others in the decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and carries the death penalty.
Activists say at least 16 people have been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings on protest-related charges. Death sentences in Iran are usually carried out by hanging.
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At least 517 protesters have been killed and more than 19,200 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely followed the unrest. The Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained.
The protests began in mid-September, when Amini, 22, died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Women have played a prominent role in the protests, with many publicly removing the mandatory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.
This is a locator map of Iran with its capital Tehran.
(AP Photo)
The protests mark one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 revolution. Security forces have used live ammunition, pellets, tear gas and batons to disperse protesters, according to human rights groups.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed a new hardline police chief, the official IRNA news agency reported. General Ahmad Reza Radan replaced outgoing General Hossein Ashtari after he finished Ashtari’s eight-year term.
Radan, who served as acting police commander from 2008 to 2014, is known for his harsh treatment of protesters during the 2009 post-election riots. He also cracked down on women wearing loose Islamic headscarves and young men. with long hair.
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The United States and Europe imposed sanctions on Radan for human rights violations in 2009 and 2010.
He has been in charge of a police investigation center since 2014.
