DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran executed a second prisoner on Monday convicted over crimes dedicated through the nationwide protests difficult the nation’s theocracy, publicly hanging him from a building crane as a ugly warning to others.
The execution of Majidreza Rahnavard got here lower than a month after he allegedly fatally stabbed two members of a paramilitary drive after purportedly turning into indignant about safety forces killing of protesters.
The growth underscores the velocity at which Iran now carries out dying sentences handed down for these detained in the demonstrations that the federal government hopes to place down.
Activists warn that at the least a dozen individuals have already got been sentenced to dying in closed-door hearings. At least 488 individuals have been killed for the reason that demonstrations started in mid-September, in keeping with Human Rights Activists in Iran, a gaggle that’s been monitoring the protests. Another 18,200 individuals have been detained by authorities.
Iran’s Mizan information company, which falls underneath the nation’s judiciary, printed a collage of pictures of Rahnavard hanging from the crane, his palms and ft certain, a black bag over his head.
Masked safety drive members stood guard in entrance of concrete and metallic boundaries that held again a gathered crowd early Monday morning in the Iranian metropolis of Mashhad.
Mizan alleged Rahnavard had stabbed two safety drive members to dying Nov. 17 in Mashhad and wounded 4 others.
Footage aired on state TV confirmed a person chasing one other round a avenue nook, then standing over him and stabbing him after he fell towards a parked bike. Another 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 “student” Basij, paramilitary volunteers underneath Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Basij (ba-SEEJ’) have deployed in main cities, attacking and detaining protesters, who in many instances have fought again.
A closely edited state tv report aired after Rahnavard’s execution confirmed clips of him in the courtroom. In 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 kilometers (460 miles) east of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Activists say it has seen strikes, retailers 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 stated Rahnavard was convicted in Mashhad’s Revolutionary Court. The tribunals have been internationally criticized for not permitting these on trial to select their very own attorneys and even see the proof towards them.
Rahnavard had been convicted on the cost of “moharebeh,” a Farsi phrase which means “waging war against God.” That cost has been levied towards others in the a long time for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution and carries the dying penalty.
In the pictures of his execution, a banner bearing a Quranic verse: “Indeed the requital of those who wage war against Allah and His Apostle, and try to cause corruption on the earth, is that they shall be slain or crucified, or shall have their hands and feet cut off from opposite sides, or be banished from the land.”
Executions carried out in public with a crane have been uncommon in current years, although Iran used the identical method of hanging to place down unrest following the disputed 2009 presidential election and the Green Movement protests that adopted.
Typically, 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 strain on firms offering cranes to Iran in the previous, warning they can be utilized for executions.
From Brussels, the European Union’s overseas ministers expressed dismay on the newest execution. The bloc is to approve on Monday a recent collection of sanctions towards Iran over its crackdown on protestors, and likewise for supplying drones to Russia to be used in its conflict towards Ukraine, the bloc’s high diplomat stated.
EU overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell stated he spoke to Iran’s overseas minister relating to Tehran’s response to the protests and the most recent execution and that it was “not an easy conversation.”
“We are going to approve a very, very tough package of sanctions,” Borrell informed reporters as he arrived to chair the ministerial assembly in Brussels. Finland’s overseas minister stated that he additionally known as his Iranian counterpart.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the execution as “a blatant attempt at intimidation” of Iranians.
“We are making clear that we stand beside innocent people in Iran,” Baerbock stated as she arrived on the Brussels assembly. “A system that treats its people in this way cannot expect to continue to have halfway normal relations with the European Union.”
Iran is without doubt one of the world’s high executioners and sometimes executes prisoners by hanging. It executed the primary prisoner detained throughout demonstrations final Thursday.
Amnesty International has stated it obtained a doc signed by one senior Iranian police commander asking that the execution for one prisoner be “completed ‘in the shortest possible time’ and that his death sentence be carried out in public as ‘a heart-warming gesture towards the security 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 towards the U.S. greenback.
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Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.