Iran secretly executes man over 2022 anti-government protests: rights group

Iran secretly executed a man on Thursday after convicting him of killing a member of the security forces during mass protests that swept the country last year, rights groups said.

It was the eight execution Iran has carried out in a case related to the protests which erupted in September 2022 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress rules for women.

Milad Zohrevand was executed at dawn in a prison in the western city of Hamadan, the Norway-based Hengaw organisation said.

He had been sentenced to death for killing a Revolutionary Guards officer during a protest in the town of Malayer in November last year.

#Iran: Milad Zohrevand, a 20-year-old Malayer protester arrested during the #WomanLifeFreedom nationwide protests, was secretly executed for murder charges in Hamedan Central Prison yesterday. At least 684 people have been executed in Iran. Executions have surged since the start… pic.twitter.com/OhDwkVUNVU

— Iran Human Rights (IHR NGO) (@IHRights) November 24, 2023

Hengaw, which focuses on Kurdish issues, said that Zohrevand had received no prior notification that his execution was imminent and was not granted a final meeting with his family.

The execution of Zohrevand, who was in his early 20s, has not been reported by media inside Iran.

The Dadban legal collective also confirmed the execution on social media, adding that Zohrevand had been denied a lawyer.

Iranian authorities have already executed seven men in cases related to the 2022 protests, drawing condemenation from human rights groups and Western governments.

The last such executions were of three men in May. Amnesty International said they were intended to "send a strong message to the world and the people of Iran that they will stop at nothing to crush and punish dissent."

Iran launched a sweeping crackdown to snuff out the protests that saw hundreds killed and thousands arrested, according to rights groups and the United Nations.

Iran has executed at least 680 people this year, mostly on murder and drug-related charges, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights.