Iran executes 2 men accused of killing security agent during protests

Iran hanged two people on Saturday for allegedly killing members of its security forces during nationwide protests that followed the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, on September 16.

The two men who were executed on Saturday had been convicted of killing members of the Basij paramilitary militia. Three others have been sentenced to death in the same case, while 11 received prison sentences.

“Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, the main perpetrators of the crime that led to the unjust martyrdom of Ruhollah Ajamian were hanged this morning,” the court said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

The latest execution brings to four the number of protesters officially known to have been executed following the riots.

Dozens at risk of execution: rights groups

Amnesty International said last month that Iranian authorities had sought the death penalty for at least 26 others in what it called “fake trials designed to intimidate protesters in the popular uprising that has rocked the country.”

He said all those on death row had been denied the right to a defense and access to a lawyer of their choice. Rights groups say defendants should rely on state-appointed lawyers who do little to defend them.

Amnesty said the court that convicted Karami, a 22-year-old karate champion, relied on a coerced confession.

Hosseini’s lawyer, Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani, said in a December 18 post on Twitter that Hosseini had been severely tortured and that the confessions extracted during the torture had no legal basis.

He said Hosseini was beaten with his hands and legs tied, kicked in the head to death and given electric shocks in various parts of his body.

Iran denies that the confession was extracted by torture.

Mahsa Amini died in custody in September after being arrested by moral police enforcing the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code law. The protests are one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.

A new police chief was appointed

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday appointed hardline police officer Ahmad-Reza Radan as the new national police commander, state media reported.

Radan, who was placed under US sanctions in 2010 for human rights violations, often called for strict enforcement of the country’s Islamic dress code for women during his previous police career.

The Basij forces, affiliated with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, have been behind many of the crackdowns on protesters.

Iran, which has blamed the unrest on foreign enemies, including the United States, sees the protests as a defense of national sovereignty.

The rights group HRANA said that as of Friday, 517 protesters had been killed in the unrest, including 70 minors, and 68 members of the security forces had also been killed. About 19,262 protesters are believed to have been arrested, he said.

Iranian officials say up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed.

The first protester known to be executed was Mohsen Shekari, 23, on December 8, less than three months after his arrest. He is accused of burning trash cans, blocking roads, stabbing members of the Basij militia with machetes and threatening public safety.

Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged from a crane in public on December 12 in the northeastern city of Mashhad, less than a month after his arrest. He is accused of stabbing to death two Basij members and wounding four others in Mashhad.