Iran has executed two young protesters over their involvement in nationwide anti-government demonstrations in January.
Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi were hanged on Tuesday morning in Isfahan Central Prison, said the Norway-based Hengaw human rights organisation.
They had been arrested during the protests in January, which were one of the largest popular challenges to the Islamic Republic since it established power in 1979.
Hengaw said Mr Mr Ebrahimi and Mr Maleki were both aged 20, and described Mr Ebrahimi as having been an “outstanding medical student”. The Iran Human Rights Organisation, also based in Norway, put the men’s ages at 19 and 20 respectively and said they were among 36 people executed in Iran this year over the January protests.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency said the men had been arrested and sentenced in connection with the killing of four security personnel at Alikhani Square, Isfahan, on January 8.
Confirming the executions on Tuesday, Mizan said the men had “committed a horrific crime” and were guilty of efsad-e fel arz – corruption on Earth – and moharebeh – enmity against God – both punishable by execution in Iran’s penal code.
The terms are often used for offences allegedly committed by protesters and opponents of the Iranian government.
Human rights organisations regularly report grave violations of international standards in Iranian court proceedings, including denial of access to lawyers, coerced confessions and a lack of notice given to families and legal representatives before death sentences are carried out.
The Iran Human Rights Organisation described “torture, forced confessions and gross violations of due process” in the two men’s case.
“The authorities have used the deaths of four security officers to justify these executions, although none of those executed were charged with murder,” the organisation said in a statement posted online on Monday.
Hengaw said that Mr Ebrahimi was caught in a crowd while riding a motorcycle to his grandmother's house on January 8, and was then identified and arrested by security forces through mobile phone tracking.
“During the interrogation, he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture to extract a forced confession,” the organisation added.
Three other defendants arrested over the Alikhani Square case “remain at serious risk of execution”, the Iran Human Rights Organisation said, and called on European nations to “go beyond statements of concern and take concrete action to stop further executions” in Iran. The organisation has counted 691 executions in the country this year amid a push against dissent during the war with the US and Israel.
Thousands of protesters were killed and tens of thousands more detained in a crackdown by security forces against January's protest movement. A UN fact-finding mission and Amnesty International have said the crackdown was so severe that it amounted to crimes against humanity, and included murder, rape, enforced disappearance and torture.
