Second Iranian detainee executed for alleged protest crime : NPR

A location map of Iran with its capital, Tehran.

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A location map of Iran with its capital, Tehran.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said on Monday it executed its second detained prisoner amid ongoing nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy, airing footage on state television it said showed him in action. stabbing a man to death and fleeing.

The execution of Majidreza Rahnavard, less than a month after he allegedly stabbed two security officials, shows how quickly Iran is now carrying out death sentences for those detained during the protests the government hopes to quell.

Activists warn that at least a dozen people have already been sentenced to death in closed hearings. At least 488 people have been killed since the protests began in mid-September, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that monitors the protests. Another 18,200 people were arrested by the authorities.

Iran’s Mizan news agency, under the country’s judicial authority, claimed that Rahnavard stabbed two members of the security forces to death on November 17 in Mashhad and injured four others.

Footage shown on state television showed a man chasing another around a street corner, then standing over him and stabbing him after he fell into a parked motorcycle. The attacker, who state television said was Rahnavard, then fled.

The Mizan report identified the dead as Basij “students”, paramilitary volunteers under Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The Basij (ba-SEEJ’) deployed in major cities, attacking and detaining protesters, who in many cases fought back.

The Mizan Report provided no motive for Rahnavard’s alleged attack. The report accuses Rahnavard of trying to flee to a foreign country when he was arrested.

Mashhad, a Shia holy city, lies about 740 kilometers (460 miles) east of Iran’s capital, Tehran. Activists say Mashhad has seen strikes, closed shops and protests amid the unrest that began after the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by Iranian vice police.

Mizan said Rahnavard was sentenced by the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad. The courts have been internationally criticized for not allowing those on trial to choose their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them.

Rahnavard had been convicted of “moharebeh”, a Farsi word meaning “waging war against God”. This charge has been brought against others over the decades since 1979 and carries the death penalty.

Iran executed the first prisoner held during protests on Thursday. Amid the unrest, Iran has seen its rial currency fall to new lows against the US dollar.

Iran is one of the best executioners in the world. He usually executes prisoners by hanging. Already, Amnesty International says it has obtained a document signed by a senior Iranian police commander calling for the execution of a prisoner to be “completed” as soon as possible “and that his death sentence be carried out in public as” a heartwarming gesture to the security forces.'”