Iran Carries Out First Known Execution Amid Ongoing Protests

Iran has executed its first protester since Mahsa Amini's death, carrying out the death sentence given to a man who was charged with "warfare" for allegedly injuring a security guard.

After his appeal against his sentence was denied by Iran's Supreme Court, Moshen Shekari was hanged on December 8, according to the judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency. Shekari was charged with "intentionally injuring" a security officer with a weapon, "blocking the street," and brandishing a weapon with the "intention of killing and causing terror and depriving the freedom and security of people."

Since Amini passed away in police custody in September, thousands of Iranians have demonstrated in the country's streets. Shekari was one of them. She was being detained for allegedly donning a head scarf incorrectly.

Iran Carries Out First Known Execution Amid Ongoing Protests

To put an end to what has grown into the biggest challenge to the government since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the government has launched a brutal, and frequently lethal, crackdown on protesters while lawmakers have pushed for harsh punishments.

Tehran has been warned by human rights organisations and Western governments not to execute protesters after hurried trials that some have referred to as "sham" trials.

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Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, made the statement just two days before Shekari's execution, "Unfortunately, this is just really the latest tactic that we’ve seen from the Iranian regime with its ongoing, brutal crackdown on what can only be described as peaceful protesters -- individuals who are exercising their universal rights."

He added," These sentences, we know, are meant to intimidate people, to suppress dissent. They are -- they simply underscore Iran’s leadership’s fears of its own people and the fact that Iran’s government fears the truth."

According to the activist HRANA news agency, at least 459 protesters had died in the unrest as of November 29. 64 minors are included in the total. According to Amnesty International, the Iranian government is using the death penalty "as a tool of political repression to instil fear among the public and end the popular uprising," and at least 28 people, including three children, could face execution in connection with the country-wide protests.

The brutality of the crackdown prompted Badri Hosseini Khamenei, the estranged sister of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to publish a letter on December 6 in which she declared her opposition to her brother's actions and expressed sympathy with mothers who have lost loved ones due to their opposition to the Islamic republic over the past 40 years.
Farideh Moradkhani, the niece and daughter of the supreme leader, Badri Khamenei, was detained a week ago after being called to the office of the Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutor in Tehran.