Iran issues first death sentence over protests
Iran has issued a first death sentence over protests that have mounted a fierce challenge to four decades of hardline clerical rule, as rights groups warn that a wave of executions may follow as leaders try to end nearly two months of sustained nationwide dissent.
The execution was ordered for an unidentified person for allegedly setting fire to a government building. It followed 272 of Iran’s 290 lawmakers voting earlier this month to implement the death penalty for serious crimes against the state, and repeated demands by some officials to take a harder line against unrest that shows little sign of abating.
Iran is believed to execute more people annually than any other country except China, and the first known death sentence passed against a figure identified with the protest movement has alarmed NGOs.
Upwards of 326 people have died in 57 days of demonstrations, which erupted after the death of a young woman who was detained for wearing her headdress “inappropriately”. Thousands more have been detained.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials behind the violent repression of protests across Iran have been hit with new European sanctions, as Emmanuel Macron declared the ongoing unrest to be a revolution and claimed nuclear talks with western powers had reached a prolonged standstill.
The EU on Monday flagged sanctions against 29 people and three organisations. The list included prominent members of the Revolutionary Guards who have spearheaded the crackdown.
Macron, who met Iranian dissidents in Paris at the weekend, told French Inter radio: “Something unprecedented is happening. The grandchildren of the revolution are carrying out a revolution and are devouring it.”
Speaking about the nuclear deal, a yet-to-be-finalised pact to lift sanctions imposed by the EU and US on the Iranian economy in return for Iran agreeing to renewed suspension and monitoring of its nuclear programme, Macron said: “This revolution changes many things … I don’t think there will be new proposals which can be made right now to save the nuclear deal.”
The remarks marked the first time a European leader had characterised the unrest as more than a protest movement and is sure to further anger Iranian officials, who had already described Macron’s weekend meetings as “regrettable and shameful”.
Sometimes largely symbolic, EU sanctions mean a travel ban and freeze on any assets held in the bloc. EU-based residents and organisations are also forbidden to send money to sanctioned individuals.
The list includes Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, who is in charge of the country’s security forces, which are widely seen as responsible for the deaths of at least 70 people and the serious injuries of hundreds more during the repression of protests.
Also targeted are four members of Iran’s morality police, two male and two female officers, who arrested 22year old Mahsa Amini for apparently not wearing her hijab correctly.
“According to reliable reports and witnesses, she was brutally beaten and mistreated in custody, which led to her hospitalisation and death,” states the EU listing for these individuals.
The EU list also includes state-controlled broadcaster Press TV, which the EU says is “responsible for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees, including journalists, political activists and persons belonging to Kurdish and Arab minorities”.
Another organisation targeted is ArvanCloud, an IT company believed to have helped the Iranian government in its attempts to close down the internet in response to protests.
“The EU strongly condemns the unacceptable violent crackdown of protesters,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement that urged Tehran to end the repression, shed light on the number of people killed or injured, and provide due process to detainees.