An Islamic Revolutionary Court docket in Iran has sentenced an accused protester to loss of life on costs of apostasy and insulting the Koran, the activist HRANA information company stories.
The defendant, Javad Ruhi, 35, was reportedly arrested for taking part in ongoing nationwide protests within the northern Iranian metropolis of Nowshahr on December 11.
The Mazandaran Province Judicial Division’s communications arm mentioned Ruhi was additionally accused of “burning and destroying public property” and “inciting residents to create insecurity and collusion to commit a criminal offense towards the safety of the nation.”
Mohammad Sadegh Akbari, the highest justice official in Mazandaran Province, mentioned Ruhi didn’t retain a lawyer and a public defender was appointed for him by the court docket.
However civil activists and sources near Ruhi’s household deny that declare and say he was not allowed to have a lawyer throughout the interrogation course of.
HRANA quoted a supply near Ruhi’s household as saying his confession was “made underneath duress.”
Iranian authorities are accused by many former inmates of torture and in any other case forcibly extracting false confessions.
The supply near Ruhi’s household mentioned the one paperwork within the case that led to the loss of life sentence have been compelled confessions.
The court docket additionally referred to a video during which an individual units fireplace to the Koran.
However the supply mentioned that “within the video, the face of the one that units fireplace to the guide just isn’t clear, however the court docket recognized it as Javad Ruhi.”
The identical court docket not too long ago sentenced to loss of life two youngsters additionally arrested throughout demonstrations, Mehdi Mohammadifard and Arshia Takdastan, for allegedly serving to manage and lead a September 21 rally within the northern Iranian metropolis of Nowshahr.
Authorities mentioned Mohammadifard’s and Takdastan’s actions constituted “corruption on Earth,” a cost usually leveled in instances allegedly involving espionage or makes an attempt to overthrow the federal government and which the courts have taken to utilizing in latest months towards protesters angered over scholar Mahsa Amini’s loss of life in custody over an alleged dress-code violation in September.
Iranians have flooded the streets throughout the nation in protest since Amini’s loss of life, with girls and even schoolgirls placing up unprecedented exhibits of defiance in what seems to be the most important risk to the Islamic authorities for the reason that 1979 revolution.
A brutal authorities crackdown on public demonstrators and dissent has seen a number of thousand individuals arrested, together with journalists, legal professionals, activists, digital rights defenders, and others voicing opposition to the federal government.
Some lawmakers have demanded a fair harsher response, calling for heavy penalties, together with loss of life sentences, for protesters.
4 convicted protesters have already been executed — together with two over the weekend — whereas two others, Mohammad Ghobadlou and Mohammad Broghani, had their sentences upheld by the nation’s Supreme Court docket.
The regime has blamed Western governments for the unrest.
Human rights teams say the crackdown has left almost 500 individuals useless and a whole bunch extra injured, along with the arrests.
Rights teams have additionally expressed concern at the potential for a loss of life sentence being handed down towards Iranian-German twin nationwide Jamshid Sharmahd.
