In the course of the protests in Iran, a 23-year-old is said to have injured a regime militiaman and "spread terror". At the beginning of November, a revolutionary court convicted him, now he will be hanged. What is supposed to act as a deterrent for the leadership in Tehran is condemned internationally.
After the execution of a 23-year-old man in Iran, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused the leadership in Tehran of "contempt for human beings". Previously, for the first time since the protests began in Iran almost three months ago, a demonstrator had been sentenced to death - according to media reports, he was hanged.
Mohsen Shekari had been accused by the Iranian judiciary of injuring a member of the paramilitary Basij militias during a road blockade in Tehran. France and Great Britain also strongly condemned the execution.
Baerbock wrote on Twitter: "The Iranian regime's contempt for human beings knows no bounds." And further: "'
Iran has been rocked by protests since the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old died three days after being arrested by the vice squad because of an improperly worn headscarf. Activists accuse the police of abusing the young woman.
During protests on September 25, the "rioter" Mohsen Shekari blocked Sattar Khan Boulevard in Tehran and wounded a Basij in the shoulder with a machete, the Iranian judicial authority said on its website Misan Online. He was executed on Thursday morning.
A revolutionary court in Tehran reportedly convicted Shekari of "waging war against God" on November 1 - this charge is one of the most serious criminal offenses under Iranian law. On November 20, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, allowing the sentence to be carried out.
According to the judicial authority, Shekari was found guilty of having fought and drawn his weapon "with the intent to kill, spread terror and disturb the order and security of society".
Like Baerbock, the French foreign ministry strongly condemned the execution. She is in line with other "serious and unacceptable violations" in Iran, said ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he was "shocked". The world cannot turn a blind eye to the blind violence perpetrated by the Iranian regime against its own people.
The human rights organization Amnesty International said it was "appalled". The execution exposed the inhumanity of "the so-called Iranian legal system". The head of the organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, called for a strong international reaction - "otherwise we have to expect executions of demonstrators every day". Schekari was "sentenced to death in show trials without due process," he wrote on Twitter.
The human rights activist Hossein Ronaghi, who was himself in prison in Iran until the end of November, warned the government in Tehran of "serious consequences". "Taking the life of one person means taking the life of all of us. Do you have enough gallows?" he wrote on Twitter.
The Iranian judiciary has already sentenced eleven people to death in connection with the protests. On Tuesday, five protesters were sentenced to death for allegedly participating in the killing of a Basij militia member in November. The paramilitary militia, recruited from volunteers, reports to the powerful Revolutionary Guards.
Tehran describes the demonstrators as "rioters" and accuses Western countries and Kurdish exile groups of supporting the protests. According to IHR, at least 458 people have already been killed in the suppression of the protests.
