Iran carried out its first known execution on Thursday over the protests that have shaken the regime since September.
It hung a 23-year-old man after a legal process denounced as a show trial by rights groups.
Mohsen Shekari was convicted and sentenced to death for blocking a street and wounding a paramilitary during the early phase of the protests in mid-September.
At least a dozen other people are currently at risk of imminent execution after being sentenced to death by hanging over the protests in recent weeks, human rights groups warned.
Demonstrations have swept Iran for nearly three months since 22 year old Mahsa Amini died after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict hijab dress code for women.
The protests, described by the authorities as “riots”, are posing the biggest challenge to the Islamic republic since it was established following the ouster of the shah in 1979.
“Mohsen Shekari, a rioter who blocked Sattar Khan Street in Tehran on September 25 and wounded one of the security guards with a machete, was executed this morning,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR), urged a strong international reaction otherwise they will be facing daily executions of protesters.
He said Shekari had been “sentenced to death in a show trials without any due process”.
He tweeted that the execution must have rapid practical consequences internationally.
Iranian dissident Hossein Ronaghi, recently released after a spell in jail, warned the authorities that the execution of any protester will have serious consequences for them.
In one of the first international reactions, Austria’s foreign ministry said the execution was “disproportional and inhumane”, urging the government to “stop all further executions” related to the protests.
APF
