Iran has announced its first execution of a protester it convicted over the anti-government protest.
The convicted Mohsen Shekari was executed on Thursday morning after being found guilty of “enmity against God” by a Revolutionary Court, said the state media.
Accusations against him included rioting and blocking Tehran’s main road in September and injuring a paramilitary member with a machete. According to an activist, his conviction was made after a “show trial without any due process”.
Iranian Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam tweeted that unless Iranian authorities face “rapid practical consequences internationally,” executions of protesters will begin to occur daily.
According to Mizan news agency, a Revolutionary Court was told that Mohsen Shekari had hindered Tehran’s Sattar Khan Street on 25 September and attacked a member of the Basij Resistance Force, a volunteer paramilitary force often deployed to quell protests, with a machete.
The news agency further reported that on 1 November, the court found Shekari guilty of fighting and using a weapon “with the intention of killing, causing terror and disturbing the order and security of society” and convicted him of “enmity against God.”
The added that his appeal against the verdict was upheld by the supreme court on 20 November. The judiciary has announced that so far 10 people, other than Shekari, have been sentenced to death by Revolutionary Courts on the same charges over the protests. However, their identities have not been disclosed.
The death sentences, according to Amnesty International, were implemented to “further crush the popular movement” and “instil fear among the populace.”
In addition, it stated that Revolutionary Courts operated “under the control of security and intelligence elements to inflict punitive punishments following grossly unfair trials distinguished by summary and mostly secret proceedings.”
Midway through September, after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested by morality police for reportedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly,” passed away while she was still in their custody, protests against Iran’s religious establishment erupted.
One of the most significant threats to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, the women-led protests have extended to 160 cities across all 31 provinces of the nation.
