Iran Executes Man Over Nationwide Protests

Mohsen Shekari, 23, had been sentenced to death on accusations of blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the Basij militia during a protest.

Mohsen Shekari Credit...via Twitter

Iran Executes Man Over Nationwide Protests

New York Times -Dec 8th 2022

By Cora Engelbrecht

Mohsen Shekari, 23, had been sentenced to death on accusations of blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the Basij militia during a protest.

The Iranian government hanged a 23-year-old prisoner on Thursday, the first execution it has announced of a person accused of involvement in the protests that have engulfed the country for the past three months. He was one of 11 protesters who have so far been sentenced to death.

The man, Mohsen Shekari, was accused of blocking a street in Tehran and of attacking a member of the Basij militia with a machete, forcing him to get 13 stitches after a protest, according to the Mizan news agency, which is overseen by the country’s judiciary.

Mr. Shekari was arrested on Sept. 25 and sentenced on Nov. 20 by Iran’s Revolutionary Court, a special court for political cases and political prisoners, the agency said. He was accused of “moharebeh,” or waging war against God, a charge that carries an automatic death sentence.

His execution — along with the speed with which it occurred after his sentencing — was taken as a clear signal that the government was escalating its efforts to intimidate protesters calling for an end to the system of authoritarian clerical rule that has been in place since 1979.

“Iranian authorities have executed a protester, sentenced to death in show trials without any due process,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based activist group, wrote on Twitter. He said that the execution should be met with “STRONG reactions” from the international community, and that “otherwise we will be facing daily executions of protesters.”

Sanam Vakil, the deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a London research institute, said that Iran’s leaders were sending a very direct message. “This could signify the apogee of its toleration,” she said. “Up until now the system sees itself as having shown restraint, but this execution could be the end point to that.”