Iran issues first death sentence over protests

PARIS: Iran on Sunday issued its first death sentence over the protests that have shaken the country’s clerical leadership, the judiciary said, with a rights group warning other convicts risked being “hastily” executed.

The almost two months of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police, have prompted authorities to unleash a crackdown that has seen thousands detained.

Some have been charged with offences that could see them face the death penalty in a country that Amnesty International says executes more people annually than any nation other than China.

The unidentified accused was sentenced in a Tehran court to death for the crimes of “setting fire to a government building, disturbing public order, assembly and conspiracy to commit a crime against national security,” as well as for being “an enemy of God and corruption on earth”, the judiciary website Mizan Online reported.

Another court in Tehran sentenced five others to prison terms of between five to 10 years for “gathering and conspiring to commit crimes against national security and disturbing public order”, Mizan said.

Earlier this month, 272 of Iran’s 290 lawmakers demanded that the judiciary apply the death penalty, in “an eye for an eye” retributive justice against those who “have harmed people’s lives and property with bladed weapons and firearms”.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, said at least 20 people are now according to official information facing charges punishable with death.