Iranian authorities hanged two men on Saturday for allegedly killing a member of the security forces during anti-regime protests, the judiciary’s official Mizan news agency reported.
(Bloomberg) —
Iranian authorities hanged two men on Saturday for allegedly killing a member of the security forces during anti-regime protests, the judiciary’s official Mizan news agency reported.
Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22, and Mohammad Hosseini, 39, had been found guilty by an Islamic Republic Revolutionary Court of “corruption on earth” and “disrupting public order” over purportedly stabbing a plainclothes militiaman to death on November 3, Mizan reported.
According to Mizan, the incident happened near the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, after security forces clashed with protesters during a traditional ceremony to mark the 40th day since the death of a young woman who rights groups say was killed in the government’s crackdown on protests.
Saturday’s deaths mark the country’s third and fourth publicly known executions of people detained in connection with anti-regime protests that have swept the country since mid-September, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police. She was arrested for allegedly wearing clothes that violated Islamic dress codes.
On Tuesday, state media reported the death verdicts for Karami and Hosseini had been upheld. They were among 16 people indicted in connection with the case.
Rights groups say at least 476 people, including 64 children, have been killed by security forces since the unrest started on Sept. 16.
The executions come at a sensitive time as Iranians prepare to commemorate the third anniversary of the death of 176 people aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, a passenger jet that was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly after take-off near Tehran.
The plane’s downing came hours after Iran attacked a US air base in Iraq in retaliation for the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was killed in a drone attack near Baghdad on the order of then-US President Donald Trump.
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