Iran sentences five to death over killing of Basij officer during protests

Issued on: 06/12/2022 – 16:22

The 13 males and three minors had been charged with killing Ruhollah Ajamian, an official from the Basij, a paramilitary volunteer department of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, in keeping with the report from IRNA, Iran’s state information company.

The 5 sentenced to demise Monday have been charged by Iran’s Revolutionary Court docket, together with eight others. Three boys have been charged by Iran’s Legal Court docket, in keeping with the report. Iran’s judiciary spokesman, Masoud Setayeshi, who’s cited within the report, supplied no proof to assist any of the accusations. 

The alleged killing befell In Karaj, close to Tehran, on Nov. 12 when the 16 encircled and attacked Ajamian with knives and stones, the report stated. IRNA didn’t disclose the identities of the 16. It stated their sentences might be appealed.

The sentencings come amid months of anti-government demonstrations which have been violently suppressed by Iran’s safety forces. The protests, now getting into their third month, have been sparked by the demise in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict costume code. They’ve since escalated into requires the downfall of Iran’s clerical rulers, posing one of the crucial severe challenges to Iran’s theocracy because the 1979 revolution.

Iran’s Revolutionary Court docket repeatedly palms out demise sentences. The court docket was established following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Based on Amnesty Worldwide, Iran executed not less than 314 individuals in 2021, greater than half the full state executions recorded throughout the Center East that yr.

Final week, Iranian authorities executed 4 individuals it accused of working for Israel’s Mossad intelligence company. It supplied no proof to the general public for any of the 4 males’s alleged crimes.

Thus far, not less than 473 individuals have been killed and 18,200 others arrested within the protests and the safety forces crackdown that has adopted, in keeping with Human Rights Activists in Iran, a gaggle monitoring the demonstrations.

Over the previous few days there was rising confusion across the destiny of Iran’s morality police and Iran’s enforcement of its strict non secular costume code. On Sunday Iran’s chief prosecutor, Mohamed Jafar Montazeri, stated the morality police had been shut down in a report revealed by the semi-official state information company ISNA. Yesterday, the prosecutor additionally stated the legal guidelines surrounding the sporting of the Hijab have been beneath evaluation, however supplied no indication the nation was planning to revoke the regulation

For weeks, fewer morality law enforcement officials have been seen in Iranian cities. Throughout Tehran, It has change into widespread to see girls strolling town’s streets with out sporting the hijab, significantly in wealthier areas.

(AP)