Five protesters have been sentenced to death in an show-court in Alborz province, which had only three so-called hearings and lasted only six days.
Sixteen people were convicted in this show-court, five of whom were sentenced to death, and the remaining eleven were sentenced to long prison terms. Three children under are among those convicted. These who are doctor, student, shopkeeper and so.
They did not have access to a lawyer, they were tortured and the evidence was not properly examined. Some of them have been accused of participating in the killing of security officers without any evidence. So far, five protesters were sentenced to death. According to the reports, at least 30 protesters are facing the risk of execution.
So far, one accused has been executed. A 23-year-old young man named Mohsen Shekari, who was accused of breaking the shoulder of a Basiji agent, was sentenced to death. The Basiji member was not seriously injured and is being treated. However, Mohsen Shekari was executed this morning.
He was convicted of “waging war against God” for allegedly attacking a security officer with a knife and closing off a street in Tehran. In the video released by the state television from his court, the witnesses are the same officers who break the protesters in the street.
The death penalty, as a tool of state murder, has always been used by the Islamic Republic against the opposition. In a letter, two well-known lawyers, Nasrin Sotoudeh and Mohammad Seifzadeh, protested against the “illegal” use of the death penalty as a political tool against the protesters and demanded the cancellation of the sentences issued.
Further, forty lawyers released a statement stating that the Islamic Republic’s judicial system has become one of the authoritarian forces due to the presence of disobedient and non-independent officials, resulting in a corrupt network ruling the country.”
In a video published yesterday’s protests, forces are torturing protesters in the street, and in one case, the officer shoots a plastic bullet at a protester from a very close distance.
Iran has also witnessed dozens of strikes and protests in the past few days, including in Tehran. There were closures of shops and work centers in dozens of Iranian cities. In observance of the students’ day, students at dozens of universities went on strike and demonstrated yesterday.
Student Day in Iran is the anniversary of the murder of three students of University of Tehran on December 7, 1953 by Iranian police while Richard Nixon was visiting Tehran in the Pahlavi era.
During the protests of the past few days, several people were shot dead by the security forces.
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