Iran executes second protester after ‘sham’ trial where he was denied a lawyer and arrived covered in injuries

 

Monday, December 12, 2022 – Iran has executed a second protester amid nationwide demonstrations calling for an end to the mullahs’ rule.

Majidreza Rahnavard was put to death early Monday on a charge of ‘waging war against God’ after human rights activists described his trial as ‘sham.’

Rahnavard was charged with fatally stabbing two members of Basij militia forces which have been involved in violently suppressing the protests. But human rights activists say he was brought to court without a lawyer and bearing signs of torture. Iranian state media say he ”confessed.”

Rahnavard was accused of carrying out his attack in which four militiamen were said to have been injured – in the city of Mashhad last month.

Iranian authorities say he was then caught trying to flee the country on November 19.

Rahnavard was executed in public in the same city where his alleged crimes took place on Monday December 12. The method of execution was not given.

Iran has since been rocked by protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly failing to wear a compulsory headscarf.

The first execution linked to the protests took place on Thursday.  Mohsen Shekari, 23, was sentenced to death for allegedly blocking a street and wounding a security guard at the start of the protests.

Shekari was charged with ‘waging war against God’ after the Iranian regime said he blocked Sattar Khan Boulevard on September 25 during a riot in Tehran and ‘stabbed the left shoulder of a Basiji’, the official IRNA news agency reported.

‘Mohsen gave his life for freedom. He wanted a normal life. One more brave soul killed by this bloody regime,’ said Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and campaigner, who posted a photo on Twitter she claimed was Shekari.