Three More Iranians Sentenced To Death Over Protests

Iranwire – An Iranian court has sentenced to death three men allegedly involved in the killing of three members of the security forces, the judiciary says, bringing to at least 17 the number of people handed capital punishment in connection with nearly three months of nationwide protests.

Four of those convicted have been executed so far.

Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi and Saeed Yaghoubi were sentenced to death on charges of “waging war against God,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website reported on January 9.

They were also found guilty of belonging to a “criminal group with the intention of disrupting the security of the country.”

The 26-year-old professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani received sentences totaling 26 years in prison on three different charges over the deaths of the three members of the security forces during an anti-government demonstration in the central city of Isfahan on November 16.

Nasr-Azadani should serve them concurrently, meaning he would be behind bars for 16 years, Mizan said.

It said all the sentences announced can be appealed before the supreme court.

The latest sentences were announced two days after the Islamic Republic executed two men, Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, for the November killing of a paramilitary force member in Karaj, west of Tehran.

Two other young men, Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, were hanged in December after being convicted of separate attacks on security forces.

The executions have sparked global outrage and Western sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The country has been swept by protests since the September 16 death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of morality police.

More than 500 people have been killed and over 18,000 others have reportedly been arrested in the state crackdown on the protests, which have morphed into one of the most serious challenges to the theocracy installed by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.