December 8, 2022
A prisoner convicted in Iran's ongoing protests has been executed.
Iran executes first known prisoner arrested in protests
Iran says it has executed a prisoner convicted of a crime allegedly committed during the country’s ongoing nationwide protests, Iran’s Mizan news agency reported Thursday. It's the first such death penalty carried out by Tehran. The man was accused of blocking a street and attacking a security force member with a machete in Tehran.
The background: Iran has been rocked by protests since the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, after she was detained by the country’s morality police. Activists warn others could be put to death as well soon since at least a dozen people have so far received death sentences over their involvement in the demonstrations.
· Reports circulated this week that Iran's "morality police" would be dismantled following some confusing comments to that effect by a senior Iranian official. But experts noted there had been no official order to abolish the program.
· 470 protesters and 61 security personnel have died, activists say. The uprisings have rolled across dozens of cities, and mass arrests of students, journalists, activists, artists, sports figures and celebrities who expressed grievances with Iran's hard-line government have become almost daily events.
Iran executes first protester from anti-regime demonstrations
December 8, 2022
Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The Iranian government said Thursday it executed the first protester in connection with recent anti-regime demonstrations sparked by the death of an Iranian woman in custody of the country's so-called morality police in September.
Authorities hung Mohsen Shekari, 23, after a Revolutionary Court found him guilty of "enmity against God" for blocking a main road in Tehran during a protest and injuring a member of the paramilitary with a machete.
The court convicted Shekari on Nov. 1 and his appeal of the decision failed on Nov. 20. The court found that Shekari used a weapon "with the intention of killing, causing terror and disturbing the order and security of society."
"Execution of Mohsen Shekari must be met with strong reactions. Otherwise, we will be facing daily executions of protesters," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights. "This execution must have rapid practical consequences internationally."
Some 21 people have been charged with offenses similar to Shekari's that will likely carry the death penalty. Human rights officials said hundreds of others have been killed in violent crackdowns of the demonstrations.
Amnesty International criticized Shekari's execution, calling his trial and appeal decisions a sham. It expects other executions to follow.
"[Amnesty International] is horrified at today's execution of protester Mohsen Shekari by Iranian authorities less than three weeks after sentencing him in a grossly unfair sham trial," the organization said on Twitter. "His execution exposes the inhumanity of Iran's so-called justice system as dozens of others face the same fate."
Iranians have participated in widespread protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, who died in police custody in Tehran on Sept. 16. She had been arrested for not wearing her hijab correctly.
Iran Hangs Protestor In Regime’s First Execution Over Anti-Government Demonstrations
December 8, 2022
Iran has executed a man arrested during the ongoing anti-government protests sweeping the nation, according to state media, the first known use of the death penalty in connection with the unrest as human rights groups warn of sham trials and intimidation tactics from a regime moving to quash one of the biggest challenges to its authority in decades.
Iran said it had executed Mohsen Shekari in connection with nationwide protests against the ruling regime spreading across the country in recent months, according to multiple news outlets citing Iranian state media.
Shekari was reportedly hanged on Thursday morning after being convicted of “waging war against God” under Iran’s sharia law, Islam’s legal system.
Shekari allegedly blocked off a street and injured a security guard with a machete during unrest in the Iranian capital of Tehran in September.
Shekari reportedly appealed the verdict, which was upheld by Iran’s supreme court in late November.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, condemned Shekari’s execution and denounced his being “sentenced to death in show trials without any due process.”
Shekari’s execution must have “rapid practical consequences internationally,” he added.
Civil unrest has rocked Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September in the custody of the country’s morality police. Amini, allegedly detained for not adhering to the nation’s strict dress code for women, was reportedly beaten severely and died from the injuries, though authorities claim Amini died from a heart attack or underlying illness. The protests, led by women, have spread across the entire country and internationally, and signify one of the biggest challenges to the Iranian regime in decades. Authorities have cracked down violently on the demonstrations, which they have classified as “riots” caused by foreign influence. Human rights groups like Amnesty International have warned Iranian authorities will push capital punishment through sham trials as an intimidation tactic to repress opposition and quell the uprising. The regime has reportedly disbanded the morality police and is reportedly considering changing the hijab laws requiring women to wear veils.
What To Watch For
Amnesty says at least 28 people, including three children, could face execution in connection with the protests. At least six people have already been sentenced to death in “sham trials,” the rights group said.
Big Number
At least 475. That’s how many have been killed in connection with the protests in Iran as of Wednesday, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency. At least 65 children have been killed and more than 18,000 people arrested, the group said.
Iran 'on verge of collapse' after carrying out first execution over protests
December 8, 2022
Iran has announced the first known execution of a man convicted over the recent anti-government unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini.
Mohsen Shekari was hanged this morning after being found guilty of injuring a security guard with a knife and blocking a street in Tehran.
Amnesty International already said he was convicted after ‘a grossly unfair sham trial’.
State media published a video of what it said was his confession where he appears with a bruise on his right cheek.
Rights groups have said Shekari was tortured and forced into a false confession.
Director of Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, has called on the international community to ‘immediately and strongly react to the execution’.
‘The Islamic Republic must face consequences that will prevent further execution of protesters.
He said: ‘Mohsen Shekari was executed after a hasty and unfair trial without a lawyer.
‘If Mohsen Shekari’s execution is not met with serious consequences for the government, we will face mass execution of protesters.’
British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said he was ‘outraged’ by the news, while Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said the regime’s ‘inhumanity knows no bounds’.
Shekari’s arrest, trial and execution took only weeks, and according to Amnesty International, authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in connection with the protests.
His death comes hours after further demonstrations broke out in the capital in a renewed bid to overthrow the Iranian regime.
Videos shared on social media show what looks like hundreds of people heading to Tehran’s famous Azadi Square last night.
Actor Omid Djalili, who was born in London to Iranian parents, shared a video on Twitter of floods of cars.
He said that the protest on Wednesday had been ‘organised in secrecy’, citing information sent to him from inside Iran.
‘Reports coming in of helicopters taking off from within the boundaries of the Presidential compound removing several families from inside Khamenei’s House,’ he tweeted.
Djalili later added: ‘Messages I’m getting from Iran: “Tehran on verge of collapse.
‘Leaked: Basij leader there has admitted the possibility of Tehran’s fall tonight is extremely high and that the Presidential palace may be attacked. Khamenei and Raisi told to be transferred to a safe place ASAP”.’
Iran would be negotiating political asylum with Venezuela in the event of an eventual loss of power, according to the media
December 7, 2022
Iranian authorities have reportedly begun negotiations with Venezuela to arrange future political asylum plans in the wake of concerns over ongoing protests in the country following the death in police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, according to Iran International media.
Diplomatic sources have indicated to the aforementioned media that Iran has begun these dialogues with "its Venezuelan allies" with the objective of guaranteeing asylum to officials --and families-- of the regime in case the situation worsens.
In this sense, a delegation of four high-ranking officials of the regime would have visited Caracas in mid-October to make sure that the government of Nicolás Maduro would grant asylum, allowing them to enter the country in case "the unfortunate incident" occurs.
Likewise, Iran International's sources indicate that for weeks people and "a considerable amount of cargo" have been leaving for the Latin American country.
As reported by the Iranian channel, the British newspaper 'Daily Express' published at the end of October that officials of the Persian country were looking for passports in the United Kingdom for families fleeing Tehran.
Meanwhile, regular money transfers are being made abroad by high-ranking officials, while there are official reports that luxury properties are being sold below market value, according to Iran International.
December 7, 2022
The sister of Iran's supreme leader reportedly said that she hopes the "tyranny" of her brother, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will soon be overthrown as she called on the country's revolutionary guards to lay down their arms.
"I think it is appropriate now to declare that I oppose my brother’s actions and I express my sympathy with all mothers mourning the crimes of the Islamic Republic regime," Badri Hosseini Khamenei's France-based son Mahmoud Moradkhani shared in a letter as saying attributed to his mother.
"I think it is appropriate now to declare that I oppose my brother's actions and I express my sympathy with all mothers mourning the crimes of the Islamic Republic, from the time of Khomeini to the current era of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei," it added,
Iran's Islamic regime faces dissent from the supreme leader's own family. Badri's family have been fierce critics of her brother's regime and its predecessors since the 1979 revolution overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Her husband, Ali Tehrani, was a prominent dissident and cleric who she followed into exile during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. When the pair returned to Iran in 1995 he was jailed for 10 years. Tehrani died in October this year.
"Our family’s opposition and struggle against this criminal system began a few months after the (1979) revolution," the letter read.
"The crimes of this system, the suppression of any dissenting voice, the imprisonment of the most educated and the most caring youth of this land, the most severe punishments, and the large-scale executions began from the very beginning."
The letter condemned the authorities’ crackdown on the nationwide protests that have rocked Iran for almost the past three months since the custodial death of a 22-year-old Mahsa Al-Amini.
"I am sorry that due to physical ailments, I cannot participate in protest movements as I should. But in heart and soul, I am with the people of Iran," it read further.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's sister still lives in Iran. Her daughter, Farideh Moradkhani, a prominent activist, was arrested in November after calling on foreign governments to cut all ties with Tehran. She had already been arrested for her activism on two occasions before the latest protest movement.
Human rights groups have put the number of people killed since the protests began in Iran at more than 450. On Wednesday, five people were sentenced to death by hanging for killing a member of the Basij paramilitary force.
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