- Iran executed a second person in connection to the human rights protests sweeping the country.
- Thousands of people have been arrested, and Iran has repeatedly threatened to execute protesters.
- Iranian media printed the names of 25 others who face the death penalty, per The Guardian.
Iran has executed a second person linked to the human rights protests that have swept the country in recent months, and has published the names of 25 more who could follow, in a ramping up of punishments.
Iran’s Mizran news agency, the media arm of the country’s judicary, reported on Monday that Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was “hanged in public” on Monday morning, Reuters reported. He was hung from a construction crane, according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported on Monday that Iranian media had printed the names of 25 other people who faced the death penalty in connection with the protests.
Rahnavard was accused of stabbing two members of the Basij Resistance Force, a paramilitary force that works for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, according to Mizan.
Witnesses told the court that they saw him do it, Mizan reported, but human rights groups have warned that Iran is conducting sham trials of protesters.
Rahnavard’s family were told on Monday that he had been executed and his body had been buried in the local cemetery, The Guardian said.
His death comes after Iran executed Mohsen Shekari last week, in the first known execution connected to the protests.
Shekari was accused of blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of Iran’s security forces with a machete, according to the Associated Press.
Amnesty International said that his trial “bore no resemblance to a meaningful trial.”
Protests in Iran begin in September, when a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody after being arrested for not properly wearing a hijab, as required under Iran’s strict laws.
The UN said that as of late last month thousands of people had been detained for peacefully protesting in Iran, while around 300, including 40 children, have died.
In recent months Iranian woman, both online and at physical protests, have removed their hijabs and cut their hair. While protesters have set fire to objects on busy roads, and store owners have shut their premises as part of strike action.
Iran’s forces have responded with violence as well as arrests. Doctors and nurses in Iran told The Guardian last week that security forces are targeting women, firing at their faces, breasts and genitals with shotguns.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to execute more prisoners in connection with the protests.
Tara Sepehri Far, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in November that “Iran’s vicious security apparatus is using every tactic in its book, including lethal force against protesters, arresting and slandering human rights defenders and journalists, and sham trials to crush widespread dissent.”
