Iran Officials Sentence 5 to Death for Killing Basij Officer

According to official media on Tuesday, five individuals were given the death penalty by Iranian authorities for allegedly murdering an officer connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Eleven other people were given hefty prison terms.

According to the report from IRNA, Iran's state news agency, the 13 men and three juveniles had been accused of murdering Ruhollah Ajamian, a representative of the Basij, a paramilitary volunteer branch of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

The Revolutionary Court of Iran charged eight other people in addition to the five who received the death penalty on Monday. According to the article, Iran's Criminal Court has accused three youngsters. Masoud Setayeshi, a spokesman for Iran's judiciary who is mentioned in the paper, offered no proof to back up any of the allegations.

The report claimed that the alleged death occurred on November 12 in Karaj, close to Tehran, when the 16 surrounded and attacked Ajamian with knives and stones. The identity of the 16 were kept a secret by IRNA. It said that they might appeal their penalties.

The sentences were given in the midst of months' worth of ruthlessly put down anti-government protests by Iranian security forces. The 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained for allegedly breaking the Islamic Republic's strict dress code when she passed away in police custody. 

The protests, which are now in their third month, were started as a result. Since then, they have intensified into demands for the overthrow of Iran's clerical authorities, posing one of the most significant threats to theocracy since the 1979 revolution.

The Revolutionary Court of Iran often convicts people to death. The court was set up after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. More than half of the total number of state executions recorded in the Middle East that year, at least 314 individuals were put to death in Iran in 2021, according to Amnesty International.

The Iranian government murdered four persons last week whom it believed to be Mossad espionage agents. It gave the general public no proof of any of the four men's purported misdeeds.

According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group keeping an eye on the protests, at least 473 people have died so far and 18,200 have been detained in connection with the demonstrations and the subsequent crackdown by the security forces.

The fate of Iran's morality police and the implementation of the country's stringent religious clothing code have been subjects of escalating controversy during the past few days. The morality police were reportedly disbanded on Sunday, according to a report by Iran's chief prosecutor, Mohamed Jafar Montazeri, which was released by the state news agency ISNA. The prosecutor also stated the regulations governing the wearing of the hijab were being reviewed the day before, but she gave no indication that the nation intended to repeal the law.

Less morality police have been visible in Iranian cities for some weeks. Women no longer covering their heads with the hijab are becoming frequent in Tehran, especially in the affluent neighbourhoods.