Iran carries out first execution over Mahsa Amini protests
Iran on Thursday carried out the first execution of a prisoner convicted over the women-led Mahsa Amini protests.
Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged after a court convicted him for participating in protests and committing violence.
The Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website reported that Shekari was "a rioter who blocked Sattar Khan Street in Tehran on 25 September and wounded one of the security guards with a machete".
Shakeri was arrested in September and accused of assaulting a member of the paramilitary Basij force in the shoulder with a machete.
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Iranian rights groups condemned the sentence against Shakeri.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, urged a strong international reaction "otherwise we will be facing daily executions of protesters".
Shekari had been "sentenced to death in show trials without any due process. This execution must have rapid, practical consequences internationally", Amiry-Moghaddam tweeted.
Shakeri was one of the dozens of Iranians facing death sentences in protest-related cases. The mass protests swept the country after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her mandatory hijab "inappropriately".
Hossein Ronaghi, an Iranian dissident recently released from jail, warned authorities in a series of tweets: "The execution of any protester will have severe consequences for you. Taking the life of one person is taking all of our lives. Do you have enough gallows?"
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted that he was "outraged by the tragic news of the first execution of a protestor in Iran".
"The world cannot turn a blind eye to the abhorrent violence committed by the Iranian regime against its own people," he said.
Iran has executed more than 500 people since the start of 2022, according to Iran Human Rights, the highest toll in five years. In 2021, authorities executed 333 people, the group said.
On Monday, Iran Human Rights said four Iranian men were hanged in Rajai Shahr prison, accused of collaborating with Israeli intelligence services.
An Iranian court also sentenced five people to death on Tuesday over the killing of a member of the Basij paramilitary.
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