Iran has carried out its first execution of a man who was convicted for a crime allegedly committed during the ongoing nationwide protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in September.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency identified the man as Mohsen Shekari.
According to the Mizan news agency, Shekari was accused of blocking a street and attacking a security force member with a machete in Tehran.
Shekari was arrested on 25 September and convicted on 20 November.
He was charged with “moharebeh,” a Farsi word meaning “waging war against God.”
The charge has been levied against others in the decades since 1979 and carries the death penalty.
Activists say that the execution could imply that at least a dozen people who have been handed death penalties for their involvement in the protests could also be put to death soon.
In a statement on Twitter, the director of the rights organisation Iran Human Rights Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Execution of #MohsenShekari must be me with STRONG reactions otherwise we will be facing daily executions of protesters.
“This execution must have rapid practical consequences internationally.”
Protests have continued in Iran since 22-year-old Amini was allegedly killed in custody after she was arrested by the country’s morality police for defying hijab laws.
Since then protests have morphed into demands for regime change against Tehran’s clergy leadership.
At least 475 people have been killed in the demonstrations amid a heavy-handed security crackdown, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been monitoring the protests since they began.
Over 18,000 people have been detained by authorities.
According to Amnesty International, authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what the organisation called “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.
Additional reporting by agencies
