According to official media, five individuals have been sentenced to death for allegedly murdering a member of a paramilitary unit linked with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. 11 others were sentenced to prison.
The 13 men and three juveniles were accused of murdering Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the Basij, a paramilitary volunteer division of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, according to a report from IRNA, Iran’s state-run news agency, on Tuesday.
The suspected murder occurred on November 12 in Karaj, near Tehran, when a group of men chased and attacked Ajamian with knives and stones, according to the report.
The IRNA article mentions “rioters,” a phrase frequently employed by the administration to describe demonstrators. At the time, antigovernment demonstrations were occurring throughout the neighborhood.
The sentencings follow months of violently crushed anti-government demonstrations by Iran’s security forces. The death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was jailed for allegedly breaching the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, triggered the protests, which are now in their third month.
Since then, demonstrations have escalated to demand the overthrow of Iran’s religious leadership, posing one of the gravest threats to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 revolution.
Five individuals were sentenced to death by Iran’s revolutionary court on Monday. According to the report, Iran’s criminal court has charged three youngsters. The quoted spokesperson for the judiciary, Masoud Setayeshi, offered no evidence to substantiate any of the allegations.
IRNA stated that their sentences, the longest of which is 25 years, are appealable.
The revolutionary court of Iran often issues death sentences. The court was founded following the Islamic Revolution of 1979. According to Amnesty International, Iran carried out at least 314 executions in 2021, representing more than half of all state killings in the Middle East that year.
The Iranian government murdered four individuals last week, accusing them of working with the Israeli Mossad intelligence organization. It gave no evidence to the public for any of the purported offenses committed by the four guys.
Also on Tuesday, the semi-official state news agency of the country, Tasnim, said that police had arrested 12 individuals suspected of having ties to “anti-revolutionary” foreign agents in Germany and the Netherlands.
According to a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard reported by Tasnim, the group intended to acquire weapons and act against the nation’s security. No other information was provided.
Iran often arrests and punishes individuals on espionage-related accusations and blames the west for the protests.
Human Rights Activists in Iran, an organization monitoring the demonstrations, reports that at least 473 people have been killed and 18,200 others jailed as a result of the demonstrations and subsequent crackdown by security forces.
Tuesday was also the second day of a nationwide three-day strike called for by the demonstrators. In social media messages, protesters requested businesses to close and urged individuals to cease using banks.
Uncertain was the extent of participation, although the majority of shops in northern Tehran neighborhoods were shuttered Tuesday afternoon and there was a considerable security presence.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, the head of Iran’s judiciary, issued an arrest warrant on Monday for anyone inciting the strike or attempting to scare businesses into closing.
According to Tasnim, authorities in the southern city of Shiraz closed a pharmacy on Monday after it allegedly refused to sell products to patients.
