According to state media reports, the first demonstrator has been executed in Iran. He is said to have blocked a road and attacked security forces with a machete.
In Iran, a death sentence has been carried out for the first time in connection with the protests against the government in Tehran, which have been going on for almost three months. A man was executed for injuring a member of the paramilitary Basij militias during a roadblock in Tehran at the end of September, the judicial authority said on its website Misan Online.
The "rioter" Mohsen Shekari blocked Sattar Khan Boulevard in Tehran on September 25 and stabbed a Basij in the left shoulder, the judiciary said. He was executed on Thursday morning.
Schekari was reportedly sentenced by a revolutionary court in Tehran on November 1. 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".
Iran has been rocked by protests since the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old died shortly after being arrested by the vice squad because of an improperly worn headscarf. Activists accuse the police of abusing the young woman.
Tehran describes the demonstrators as "rioters" and accuses the United States, other western countries and Kurdish exile groups of supporting the protests. The Iranian judiciary has sentenced eleven others to death in connection with the protests.
