Iran: Two executed for killing security official during anti-hijab protests

Iranian authorities executed two men on Saturday (January 7) for killing a security forces official during anti-hijab protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody. Thetwo men,Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini,were convicted of killing Ruhollah Ajamian,a member of the Basij paramilitary force militia. They were sentenced to death in early December last year.

"Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, principal perpetrators of the crime that led to the unjust martyrdom of Ruhollah Ajamian were hanged this morning," the judiciary said in a statement on Saturday.

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A report by the news agency Reuters said that three others have been sentenced to death in the same case and 11 others received prison sentences.

Saturday's hangings double the number of executions to four over the anti-hijab protests.

Amnesty International said the court that convicted 22-year-old Mohammad Mehdi Karami relied on forced confessions. Karami's father told the Iranian media that a family lawyer was unable to access his son's case file, news agency AFP reported on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini's lawyer Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani tweeted on December 18 last year that Hosseini was severely tortured and that confessions extracted under torture had no legal basis. Ardakani added Hosseini was beaten with his hands and feet tied up, kicked in the head until he passed out, besides bring and subjected to electric shocks.

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The latest executions in Iran come almost a month after 23-year-old Majidreza Rahnavard was publicly hanged from a crane on December 12. He was sentenced to death for killing two security forces personnel with a knife and injuring four others in Mashad.

The anti-hijab protests in Iran have been going on since mid-September last year after Mahsa Amini died in police custody. Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly violating the country's mandatory hijab law. Thousands of protesters have been arrested by authorities.

(With inputs from agencies)

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