Iran orders five to die for killing paramilitary guard

Iranian authorities sentenced five people to death for allegedly killing a member of a paramilitary force affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, state media said yesterday. Eleven others received prison sentences.

The 13 men and three minors had been charged with killing Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the Basij, a paramilitary volunteer branch of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, according to IRNA, Iran’s state news agency.

IRNA did not disclose the identities of the 16 but said their sentences can be appealed, the longest being 25 years.

The alleged killing took place In Karaj, near Tehran, on November 12 when a group of men chased and attacked Ajamian with knives and stones, the report said. The sentencings come amid months of anti-government demonstrations that have been violently suppressed by Iran’s security forces. The protests, now entering their third month, were sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

According to Amnesty International, Iran executed at least 314 people in 2021, more than half the total state executions recorded across the Middle East that year.

Last week, Iranian authorities executed four people it accused of working for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. It provided no evidence for any of the four men’s alleged crimes. —AP