Iran carries out second public execution linked to anti-government protests

Tehran [Iran], December 12 (ANI): Iran on Monday carried out a public execution, the second in less than one week, related to anti-government protests in the country, The Jerusalem Post reported.
According to Iranian state television, protester Majidreza Rahnavard convicted for stabbing and killing two security agents, was hanged to death in public this morning in the city of Mashhad.
Rahnavard was allegedly denied access to a counsel and tortured before arriving in court with injuries, Jerusalem Post reported citing Iranian state media. According to Iranian official media, Rahnavard admitted to the charges.
Rahnavard who was publically executed today was convicted for stabbing and killing two members of the Iranian security forces and injuring four others during the ongoing protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16. Amini died in the custody of state’s morality police who had detained her reportedly for not properly donning her headscarf.
On Thursday, Iran carried out its first execution related to the protests. It was the first such event that was made public.
The hanged person Mohsen Shekari, was found guilty of using a machete to injure a security official and for blocking a street in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
The security officer who was a member of the Basij paramilitary force — a wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – was injured by Shekari with a knife at a protest in Tehran on September 23.
Shekari was sentenced to death on October 23, CNN reported citing Mizan Online, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s judiciary.
Several Iranians have received death-by-execution sentences during the nationwide demonstrations after the death of Mahsa Amini. According to Amnesty International, as of November, Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in connection with the protests.
Last year, in Iran, at least 333 people were executed, according to the Iran Human Rights. The report further revealed that 55 executions, which contribute 16.5 per cent, were announced by official sources.
As many as 83.5 per cent of all executions included in the 2021 report (278 executions in total) were not announced by the authorities. At least 183 executions (55 per cent of all executions) were for murder charges, according to the report.
Iran has suspended its so-called morality police, which penalised women for not adhering to a stringent dress code, the Iranian prosecutor general said after the anti-hijab protest continued into the third month, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Javad Montazeri said the morality police “was abolished by the same authorities who installed it”, The New York Times reported.
He made this statement during the meeting where officials were discussing the unrest ignited by Amini’s death in the custody of the morality police.
The unrest has amounted to one of the biggest challenges in decades to Iran’s system of authoritarian clerical rule. (ANI)