Iran Carries Out First-Known Execution Amid Anti-Regime Protests: Activist Urges 'Strong' Response Or Face 'Daily Executions'

Iran carried out the first-known execution of a protester convicted in the recent nationwide anti-government unrest after the death of Mahsa Amini in September

What Happened: A man named Mohsen Shekari was hanged on Thursday after an Iranian Revolutionary Court found him guilty of “enmity against God,” semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported. 

Shekari was accused of being a “rioter” who blocked a road in Tehran on Sept. 25 and injured a member of the paramilitary Basij force with a knife.

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The Iranian judiciary has so far announced that 11 people have been sentenced to death in connection with the recent anti-regime protests.

In mid-September, thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest after the death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, in police custody. She was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly.”

Norway-based Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Iran Human Rights, said executions of protesters would start taking place daily unless the Iranian regime faced “rapid practical consequences internationally.”

"Execution of (Mohsen Shekari) must be met with strong reactions; otherwise we will be facing daily executions of protesters," he said.

Earlier, the U.N., in a statement, had urged Iranian authorities "to stop using the death penalty as a tool to squash protests.”

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