At least 100 Iranians arrested in more than 100 days of protests in their country face charges carrying the death penalty, Iran Human Rights (IHR), an Oslo-based NGO, said on Tuesday.
Iran is rocked by protests sparked by the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, who died after she was arrested by vice squad for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
Iran this month executed two men in connection with the protests, in an escalating crackdown by authorities that activists say is aimed at spreading fear among the population.
In a report published on Tuesday, the IHR identified 100 detainees at risk of the death penalty, including 13 already on death row. He noted that many of them had limited access to a lawyer.
“By issuing death sentences and executing some protesters, they [les autorités] want people to go home,” said IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
“It had a certain effect, [mais] what we have seen in general is more anger against the authorities,” he told AFP, adding that “their strategy of fearmongering with the executions has failed.”
In an updated tally released on Tuesday, the IHR said 476 protesters had been killed since mid-September.
At least 14,000 people have been arrested since protests began in Iran, the United Nations said in November.
Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged in public on December 12 after being convicted by a court in Mashhad (northeast) of killing two members of the security forces.
Four days earlier, Mohsen Shekari, also 23, had been executed for wounding a member of the security forces.
The judiciary said nine other people had been sentenced to death in connection with the protests, two of whom were allowed to stand trial.
The father of death row inmate Mohammad Ghodablou has called for his son’s release on social media.
“Mohammad had no criminal record so far,” the father said in a video released this week, claiming he suffered from a mental disorder.
Ghodablou, 22, was charged with “corruption on earth” for “attacking police officers with a car, which resulted in the death of one of them”.
The judiciary’s Mizan Online news site reported on Monday that Ghodablou had undergone a psychiatric evaluation, concluding that he “was aware of the nature of his crime”.