Iran Executes 1st Known Prisoner Arrested in Protests

Iran announced on Thursday that it has executed a prisoner convicted of a crime purportedly committed amid the nation's ongoing nationwide protests. This was Tehran's first execution of this kind.

Mohsen Shekari's execution comes at a time when other detainees may also receive the death penalty for their participation in the demonstrations, which started in mid-September initially as a protest against Iran's morality police. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the protests have grown into one of Iran's most significant theocratic problems.

Since at least a dozen people have already been given death sentences for taking part in the demonstrations, activists warn that more people may soon follow suit.

The director of Iran Human Rights, an organisation with offices in Oslo, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, commented that the execution "must be met with robust resistance or we would be facing everyday executions of protestors." "This execution must have immediate practical repercussions on a global scale."

According to the judiciary-run Mizan news agency, Shekari was found guilty at Tehran's Revolutionary Court, which frequently hears cases behind closed doors. The tribunals have drawn criticism from throughout the world for not letting those who are being tried choose their own attorneys or even see the evidence against them.

Shekari is charged with blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a security force member with a machete so that the victim needed stitches for his injuries, according to the news agency.

According to the Mizan report, Shekari claimed he had been paid money by a friend to attack security personnel.

Without providing any supporting data, the Iranian regime has been attempting for months to claim that foreign nations are to blame for the turmoil. The collapse of the economy, the militarised police force, and the country's powerful Islamic clergy, according to protesters, are the causes of their rage.

On the charge of "moharebeh," a Farsi term that means "waging war against God," which has been brought against others in the decades after 1979 and carries the death penalty, Shekari was detained on September 25 and found guilty on November 20. According to Mizan, Shekari's attorney was unsuccessful in his appeal of the verdict.

Following his death, Shekari's trial, presided over by Judge Abolghassem Salavati, was shown on Iranian state television in a tightly edited package.