Iran sentences 3 more protesters to death after Mahsa Amini case and reinforces repression

Iran’s court sentenced to death on Tuesday (15) three more demonstrators of acts that confront the regime, bringing to at least five the total number of people sentenced to capital punishment since the beginning of the protests in the country, according to the judiciary agency. , Mizan News.

These people were arrested in demonstrations of opposition to the regime triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd who died in the custody of the moral police after being arrested accused of violating the strict dress code that requires women to wear the Islamic headscarf correctly in public —her family accuses the security forces of having attacked the girl.

Of the three new convicts, one was accused of hitting policemen with his car, killing one of them; another of wounding an agent with a knife; and the third of blocking traffic and thereby “spreading terror”. According to the agency, the defendants can still appeal in a second instance court.

Since Amini’s death, Iran has experienced a wave of protests that have been harshly repressed by the regime. On Sunday (13), a court in the capital Tehran issued the first death sentence related to the protests. The protester was accused of disturbing public order and committing a crime against national security after setting fire to a government building.

The person, unidentified, would still have been declared “an enemy of God”. In the same trial, a second protester was sentenced to death, and five others were given sentences of up to 10 years in prison for crimes related to national security and public order.

According to Iranian authorities, more than 2,000 people are being prosecuted for their participation in the demonstrations. International human rights organizations, however, point to more expressive numbers – there would be 15 thousand detained since the beginning of the demonstrations, which the regime does not confirm.

In its latest report, the NGO Human Rights of Iran said that security forces in Tehran killed at least 326 people in acts of repression, including 43 children and 25 women. The regime, in turn, attributes the death of more than 30 agents to the demonstrations since the outbreak of the revolt in September.

The regime’s police and judicial harassment of protesters has also escalated. Iran’s army commander, Kiumars Heydari, said last week that protesters “have no place in the country” if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei orders a tougher crackdown. “If he so decides, rioters will have no more room.”

Mahsa Amini was 22 years old and died while in custody of the so-called moral police. She was visiting Tehran with her family and was with her brother at the time of the arrest, which happened because Amini was allegedly not wearing the headscarf as required by law.

Authorities claim that she died of a heart condition, but her family disputes the version. Along with activists, she says that Amini was attacked at the police station and, as a result, died. The young woman was a Kurd, a minority already marginalized in the country.

The demonstrations continue in various parts of Iran, with the official agency IRNA indicating that two revolutionary guards and a paramilitary were killed this Tuesday (15), in Bukhan, a Kurdish-majority city, Kamyaran, in Kurdistan, and Shiraz, in the south.

The agency also reported the death of a student from head injuries during an act.

In the midst of these discussions, the regime accused this Wednesday of a new terrorist attack in the province of Khuzestan, in the southwest. State TV said at least five people were killed and 15 wounded when two men in a car opened fire at a market in the city of Izeh. Among the dead were two members of the Baisj, a paramilitary militia linked to the regime, as well as a child and a woman.

The local population is predominantly from the Arab minority, who joined the protests against Tehran.

Last month, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shiite temple in Shiraz that killed at least 15 people.