Iran's Revolutionary Court has sentenced to death a prisoner accused of participating in the protests that have rocked Iran since mid-September, the Maizan judicial authority's news agency reported on Sunday. It is the first sentence to hang for these mobilizations that were born to end the mandatory veil following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the police, but now they are a cry for freedom and one of the greatest challenges facing clerics of the government.
With the sentence, which can still be appealed, the Iranian regime sends the message that it will act with an iron fist against dissent. The condemned is a man, who has not been identified, who allegedly "set fire to a government building." Another court in Tehran sentenced five to ten years in prison to five other protesters for "assembly and conspiracy to commit crimes against national security and disturbance of public order", crimes that also carry the sentenced to death.
Iranian justice has recently charged nearly 800 people for their involvement in "recent riots" in Hormozgan, Isfahan and Markazi provinces. But the total figure amounts to more than 2,000 people, half of them in Tehran, according to figures provided by the Iranian justice system. About twenty of them face charges that carry the death penalty, such as "corrupting on Earth" or "waging war against God", warns Iran Human Rights, an organization based in Oslo which, after hearing the sentence, warns against risk of rapid executions in the Asian country.
"The international community must strongly warn the Republic of Iran of the consequences of executing protesters. Calling in its ambassadors and implementing more effective human rights measures against officials are some consequences to consider," the organization formed by Iran said in a statement. activists inside and outside Iran.
A thousand defendants are expected to know their fortune in the coming days. One of them is the Kurdish rapper Saman Yasin (Mahsa Amini, 22, was from Iranian Kurdistan), who faces the gallows for having publicly criticized the regime and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Applying the crime of "waging war against God", the Iranian theocratic regime equates Khamenei with God.
And the repression is backed by political power. A large majority (227) of the 290 Iranian deputies have asked the justice to apply the retaliation law as soon as possible against the "moharebs" (enemies of God) and compared them to Islamic State terrorists. "Like the Islamic State group, (the protesters) harmed people's lives and property with bladed weapons and firearms," the MPs said.
Security forces, including Revolutionary Guard paramilitary volunteers, have violently suppressed the demonstrations, killing 326 people, including 43 minors, according to Iran Human Rights. Iranian authorities say that more than 40 members of the security forces have also been killed in unrest across the country. According to human rights organizations abroad, the regime has arrested around 15,000 people, a figure denied by the Iranian authorities.
Iran did not take well the meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and opponents of the regime on Friday in Paris and has described the president's statements as "regrettable and shameful", who praised the four activists for "the revolution" that they were "leading" in their country. "This is a flagrant violation of France's international responsibilities in the fight against terrorism and violence and we believe that it promotes these sinister phenomena," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
Kanani also denounced German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's remarks in his weekly video on Saturday where he announced a new package of EU sanctions against the regime and warned that those responsible will be hunted down and brought to justice. "What kind of government is it (Iran) that shoots at its own citizens? Anyone who acts in this way should expect our opposition," the foreign minister said. Tehran's response: "The destruction of the historical relations between Iran and Germany will have long-term consequences and Iran has a long list of human rights claims against Germany," the Iranian spokesman said.
