The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, on Tuesday accused Tehran of using death sentences against demonstrators to intimidate the Iranian population into demonstrating.
“Using criminal procedures as a weapon to punish those who exercise basic rights, such as those who participate in or organize demonstrations, is close to ‘state assassination,'” Turk said in a statement.
Iran’s judiciary announced three more death sentences on Monday, 48 hours after the execution of two protesters, sparking yet another wave of outrage from citizens in several cities across the country.
Iran has been facing popular resistance since September 16, the day the young Iranian woman of Kurdish descent, Mahsa Amini, died after being detained by police for not properly wearing the Islamic headscarf imposed on women by authorities in Iran . .
The protests demand the end of the Islamic Republic, founded in 1979.
The government has violently repressed mobilizations of mainly young people and women.
So far, at least 2,000 people have been charged with various crimes by the Iranian judiciary for participating in the protests, and four of those sentenced to death by the revolutionary courts have been executed.
Last weekend, civilians Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini were executed after being convicted of the murder of a basiji (militia member).
The executions, by hanging, have led to strong international criticism.
The European Union expressed “dismay” at the executions and asked Tehran to “immediately annul” the death sentences handed down in the context of the protests.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have called the trials “farces”, “unfair” or “revenge trials”.
More than 500 people have been killed in the clashes and 20,000 have been arrested, according to the Oslo-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights.
Source: DN
