Iran carried out its first identified execution Thursday over the protests which have shaken the regime since September, sparking a world outcry and warnings from rights teams that extra hangings are imminent.

Mohsen Shekari, 23, had been convicted and sentenced to loss of life for blocking a road and wounding a paramilitary through the early part of the protests, after a authorized course of denounced as a present trial by rights teams.

Not less than a dozen different persons are presently liable to execution after being sentenced to hold in reference to the protests, human rights teams warned.

Demonstrations have swept Iran for practically three months since Iranian Kurdish lady Mahsa Amini, 22, died in custody after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the nation’s strict hijab gown code for girls.

The protests, described by the authorities as “riots”, are posing the most important problem to the Islamic republic because it was established following the ouster of the shah in 1979.

“Mohsen Shekari, a rioter who blocked Sattar Khan Road in Tehran on September 25 and wounded one of many safety guards with a machete, was executed this morning,” the judiciary’s Mizan On-line web site stated.

Amnesty Worldwide stated it was “horrified” by the execution, which adopted Shekari’s condemnation in a “grossly unfair sham trial”.

“His execution exposes the inhumanity of Iran’s so-called justice system”, the place many others face “the identical destiny,” the group added.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR), urged a robust worldwide response in any other case “we’ll face mass execution of protesters”.

“Mohsen Shekari was executed after a hasty and unfair trial with out a lawyer,” he stated.

Iran’s Fars information company carried a video report of Shekari speaking in regards to the assault whereas in detention, which IHR described as a “compelled confession” together with his face “visibly injured”.

– ‘Boundless contempt’ –

Western governments echoed the anger of the rights teams.

Shekari’s execution “represents a grim escalation,” US State Division spokesman Ned Value stated.

“The Iranian regime’s contempt for human life is boundless,” German International Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted, describing the authorized course of as a “perfidious abstract trial”.

However she added: “The specter of execution is not going to suffocate the need for freedom.”

UK International Secretary James Cleverly stated he was “outraged” and added: “The world can not flip a blind eye to the abhorrent violence dedicated by the Iranian regime in opposition to its personal individuals.”

The workplace of the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights stated “we deplore (the) hanging of” Shekari, and the loss of life penalty “is incompatible with human rights.”

The revolutionary court docket in Tehran heard Shekari had been arrested after placing the member of the Basij paramilitary pressure within the shoulder with the blade. The harm required 13 stitches, Mizan On-line stated.

The Basij is a state-sanctioned volunteer pressure that’s linked to Iran’s highly effective Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The court docket convicted Shekari of “moharebeh” — or waging “warfare in opposition to God” underneath Iran’s Islamic sharia legislation — on November 1, stated Mizan.

It added that he appealed however the supreme court docket upheld the ruling on November 20.

In keeping with Amnesty, Iran executes extra individuals yearly than any nation apart from China.

IHR this week stated Iran had already executed greater than 500 individuals in 2022, a pointy leap on final 12 months’s determine.

The 1500tasvir protest monitor stated on social media that the execution of Shekari had occurred with such haste that his household had nonetheless been ready to listen to the end result of the enchantment.

It posted harrowing footage of what it stated was the second his household came upon the information exterior their dwelling in Tehran, with a lady doubled up in ache and grief, repeatedly screaming the phrase “Mohsen!”

– ‘Imminent hazard’ –

The largely peaceable protest motion has been marked by actions included eradicating and burning headscarves within the streets, chanting anti-government slogans and confronting the safety forces.

In a comparatively new tactic, protest supporters staged three days of nationwide strikes as much as Wednesday which closed down outlets in a number of main cities together with Tehran, in accordance with rights teams.

The safety forces have responded with a crackdown that has killed no less than 458 individuals, together with 63 youngsters, in accordance with an up to date loss of life toll issued by IHR on Wednesday.

A court docket on Tuesday sentenced 5 extra individuals to loss of life by hanging for killing a Basij member, bringing to 11 the quantity sentenced to loss of life in reference to the protests.

Freedom of expression group Article 19 stated pressing motion was wanted “because the lives of others on loss of life row in relation to the rebellion are in imminent hazard”.

Distinguished Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti, a robust supporter of the protest motion, wrote on Instagram that “each worldwide organisation who’s watching this bloodshed and never taking motion, is a shame to humanity.”

Previous to the most recent execution, Amnesty had stated no less than 28 individuals, together with three youngsters aged underneath 18, may face the loss of life penalty in reference to the nationwide protests.