Nearly Forty Protesters At Risk of Execution: Rights Group

A human rights network has warned that at least 39 protesters are currently at risk of execution or death penalty sentences in Iran.

Iran Human Rights Organization says as most families are under pressure to stay quiet, this figure is a minimum and the real number is believed to be much higher. 

The Oslo-based group also added that at least 469 people including 63 children and 32 women, have been killed by security forces in the current nationwide protests in Iran.

Iran Human Rights Organization in its latest report said the higher death toll relates to recently verified cases from the first two months of the protests.

Protesters have been killed in 25 provinces, with the most reported in Sistan-Baluchistan, Western Azerbaijan, Kordestan, Tehran and Mazandaran respectively, noted the organization.

It also noted that there is serious concern about the imminent execution of six protesters after one detainee with a confirmed death sentence was transferred from the general ward of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, to solitary confinement and at least five protesters detained in the western city of Oshnavieh charged with ‘moharebeh’ were transferred from Urmia Central Prison to an unknown location.

Moharebeh is an Islamic-Arabic term that in the lexicon of the Iranian regime means “fighting God” and its punishment is death.

Iran has been the scene of nationwide anti-regime protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.