Prosecution and sentencing of protesters continues in Iran

ANKARA/TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – A Tehran Revolutionary Court has sentenced another person to death who was arrested over recent protests in Iran. Meanwhile the trial of many demonstrators continues.

The person received a death sentence on charges of “declaring war on the state by using weapons in a way that causes fear and indignation,” said Iran’s judiciary in a statement.

The statement added that the sentence could be challenged in the appeals court.

“The investigation process was initiated swiftly, based on justice and law, and the trial of the defendants continues” upon Iran’s judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei’s instruction, it said.

Iran’s judiciary had already issued preliminary sentences to some of those arrested over recent protests in the country, with one of them receiving the death sentence.

Five other defendants were given sentences ranging between five and 10 years on charges of “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security and disruption of public order and peace.”

It comes days after Ejei called for expediting the cases related to recent protests that were triggered by the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman in police custody.

During the protests in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, a student who is a member of the Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Basij militia died due to a Molotov cocktail thrown by the demonstrators, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) announced.

In addition, a colonel named Resa Elmasi died during the demonstrations in the city of Bukan, located in West Azerbaijan province in Iran’s northwest. The colonel was reportedly shot dead by “unidentified rebels” with a pistol, according to a statement by the official news agency.

Protests over Mahsa Amini’s death erupted first in her native Kurdistan province in mid-September before spreading to other parts of the country, including the capital Tehran.

The government has not released the official death toll in the protests, but independent watchdogs have put the figure at more than 250, including civilians and police officers.

The US and European countries have in recent weeks imposed a slew of sanctions on Iranian officials and entities over what they call a “brutal crackdown on protests,” while Iranian authorities have accused them of “stoking unrest” in the country.

More than a thousand people have been arrested in the past two months for taking part in the nationwide protests, including university students, journalists and activists.

Javaid Rehman, the special UN rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, last week said that as many as 14,000 people had been arrested since September.

Last week, in a joint statement, 227 Iranian lawmakers called on the judiciary to “decisively deal” with those arrested for involvement in recent violent protests.