Second Iranian detainee executed over alleged protest crimeYesterday

Iran executed a second prisoner on Monday convicted over crimes dedicated in the course of the nationwide protests difficult the nation’s theocracy, publicly hanging him from a building crane as a grotesque warning to others.

The execution of Majidreza Rahnavard got here lower than a month after he allegedly fatally stabbed two members of a paramilitary power after purportedly turning into indignant about safety forces killing of protesters.

The event underscores the pace at which Iran now carries out dying sentences handed down for these detained within the demonstrations that the federal government hopes to place down.

Activists warn that no less than a dozen folks have already got been sentenced to dying in closed-door hearings. No less than 488 folks have been killed for the reason that demonstrations started in mid-September, based on Human Rights Activists in Iran, a gaggle that’s been monitoring the protests. One other 18,200 folks have been detained by authorities.

Iran’s Mizan information company, which falls underneath the nation’s judiciary, revealed a collage of photographs of Rahnavard hanging from the crane, his palms and ft certain, a black bag over his head.

Masked safety power members stood guard in entrance of concrete and steel limitations that held again a gathered crowd early Monday morning within the Iranian metropolis of Mashhad.

Mizan alleged Rahnavard had stabbed two safety power members to dying Nov. 17 in Mashhad and wounded 4 others.

Footage aired on state TV confirmed a person chasing one other round a road nook, then standing over him and stabbing him after he fell in opposition to a parked motorcycle. One other confirmed the identical man stabbing one other instantly after. The assailant, which state TV alleged was Rahnavard, then fled.

The Mizan report recognized the useless as “pupil” Basij, paramilitary volunteers underneath Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Basij (ba-SEEJ’) have deployed in main cities, attacking and detaining protesters, who in lots of instances have fought again.

A closely edited state tv report aired after Rahnavard’s execution confirmed clips of him within the courtroom. Within the video, he says he got here to hate the Basijis after seeing video clips on social media of the forces beating and killing protesters.

The Mizan report accused Rahnavard of attempting to flee to a overseas nation when he was arrested.

Mashhad, a Shiite holy metropolis, is situated some 740 kilometres (460 miles) east of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Activists say it has seen strikes, outlets closed and demonstrations amid the unrest that started over the Sept. 16 dying in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who had been detained by Iran’s morality police.

Mizan mentioned Rahnavard was convicted in Mashhad’s Revolutionary Court docket. The tribunals have been internationally criticized for not permitting these on trial to select their very own attorneys and even see the proof in opposition to them.

Rahnavard had been convicted on the cost of “moharebeh,” a Farsi phrase which means “waging struggle in opposition to God.” That cost has been levied in opposition to others within the many years for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution and carries the dying penalty.

Within the photographs of his execution, a banner bearing a Quranic verse: “Certainly the requital of those that wage struggle in opposition to Allah and His Apostle, and attempt to trigger corruption on the earth, is that they shall be slain or crucified, or shall have their palms and ft minimize off from reverse sides, or be banished from the land.”

Executions carried out in public with a crane have been uncommon lately, although Iran used the identical method of hanging to place down unrest following the disputed 2009 presidential election and the Inexperienced Motion protests that adopted.

Sometimes, these condemned are alive because the crane lifts them off their ft, hanging by a rope and struggling to breathe earlier than they asphyxiate or their neck breaks.

Activists have put stress on corporations offering cranes to Iran previously, warning they can be utilized for executions.

From Brussels, the European Union’s overseas ministers expressed dismay on the newest execution. The bloc accepted on Monday a contemporary collection of sanctions in opposition to Iran over its crackdown on protesters, and in addition for supplying drones to Russia to be used in its struggle in opposition to Ukraine, the bloc’s high diplomat mentioned.

EU overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell mentioned he spoke to Iran’s overseas minister relating to Tehran’s response to the protests and the newest execution and that it was “not a simple dialog.”

“We’re going to approve a really, very robust bundle of sanctions,” Borrell instructed reporters as he arrived to chair the ministerial assembly in Brussels. Finland’s overseas minister mentioned that he additionally known as his Iranian counterpart.

German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock described the execution as “a blatant try at intimidation” of Iranians.

“We’re making clear that we stand beside harmless folks in Iran,” Baerbock mentioned as she arrived on the Brussels assembly. “A system that treats its folks on this method can not anticipate to proceed to have midway regular relations with the European Union.”

Iran is without doubt one of the world’s high executioners and usually executes prisoners by hanging. It executed the primary prisoner detained throughout demonstrations final Thursday. To this point this yr, it has executed over 500 prisoners, the best quantity in 5 years, based on the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights.

“Within the absence of significant measures to discourage the Islamic Republic from executing protesters, we might be dealing with much more horrific crimes just like the Eighties mass execution of political prisoners,” the group warned Monday. That refers back to the 1988 executions partially overseen by Iran’s present hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi that activists imagine noticed as many as 5,000 inmates put to dying.

Amnesty Worldwide has mentioned it obtained a doc signed by one senior Iranian police commander asking that the execution for one prisoner be “accomplished `within the shortest attainable time’ and that his dying sentence be carried out in public as `a heart-warming gesture in direction of the safety forces.”’

Amid the unrest, Iran can be battered by an financial disaster that has seen the nationwide foreign money, the rial, drop to new lows in opposition to the U.S. greenback.