Tehran: The Iranian authorities on Saturday, executed two men for allegedly killing a security official during ongoing anti-hijab protests movement in the country for nearly four months.
The two men, who were executed, had been convicted of killing Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer Basij Force, in the city of Karaj outside of Tehran on November 3.
“Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, the main perpetrators of the crime that led to the martyrdom of Ruhollah Ajamian, were hanged this morning,” judicial news agency Mizan Online reported.
Iranian civil rights activist Atena Daemi on Saturday took to Twitter and wrote, “#Mohammad Mahdi Karmi was executed today on January 7 while he was on a hunger strike. #Mohammed_Hosseini and Mohammad Mahdi Karmi were executed while they did not have the right to meet their families for the last time They were sentenced to death without a lawyer… #Mahsa_Amini.”
The court of first instance had sentenced the two men to death on December 4.
On January 3, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the two men’s death sentences, accusing them of killing Ajamian.
In December 2022, two men were executed, one using a construction crane, with a sack over his head.
23-year-old Mohsen Shakari, was executed on December 8 by hanging, less than three months after his arrest.
Shekari was the first protester to be executed by the authorities in an official protest-related execution.
He was accused of setting a garbage container on fire, blocking a road, stabbing a member of the Basij militia with a machete, and endangering public safety.
Also, 23-year-old Majid Reza Rahnavard, was executed on December 12, just four days after the execution of Shekari. He was arrested on November 19 in the northeastern city of Mashhad and hanged from a crane in public less than a month after his arrest.
Reza was the second protester to be executed because of the protests.
Iran has been shaken by violent protests since September 16, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, three days after the morality police detained her in Tehran because of the country’s strict dress code.
At least 517 people have been killed since the demonstrations began in mid-September, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been monitoring the protests. Another 19,262 people have been detained by authorities.
