TEHRAN-At least 100 people have now been sentenced to death or charged with capital offences in connection with the protests in Iran, a rights group says.
Five women were among those at risk of execution, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported Wednesday. The real number of protesters facing the death penalty was believed to be far higher because families were being pressured to stay quiet, it warned.
Two men were executed this month after what activists said were sham trials. Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, who were both 23, were found guilty by Revolutionary Courts of the vaguely-defined national security charge of “enmity against God”. Iran has been engulfed by protests against the country’s clerical establishment for just over 100 days. They erupted following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police in Tehran on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”. Authorities have portrayed the protests as foreign-backed “riots” and responded with lethal force.