An Iranian man was found guilty of “waging war against God” and is now facing the death penalty for giving free chocolate and hugs to anti-regime protesters.
Last month, while supporting and providing food to protesters in the city of Qazvin, west of Tehran, Mohammed Nasiri, 21, and three other people were detained.
Before he was tortured into making a false confession that he had stabbed a member of the pro-regime militia forces with a knife, according to acquaintances, the police tased and arrested him.
After Iran hanged two other male demonstrators who were made to confess to similar offences, he is now in danger of receiving the death penalty.
The Islamists in power in Iran are starting to repress the statewide rallies that have been taking place since September and want an end to their reign.
IranWire was told by Nasiri’s pals about his suffering. They claimed to have joined the street protests early on and made the decision to give out chocolate and hugs to bystanders.
‘In our opinion, this was the best peaceful approach to protest the current situation,’ said Vahid, a group member. People frequently offered us encouragement.
On November 12, however, a bystander let the group know that plainclothes police officers were keeping an eye on them.
Officers pursued them as they attempted to pack up and leave; one struck Nasiri with an electric stun gun, causing him to tumble to the ground.
The group claims that before his “half-dead” body was hauled away, Nasiri was thrashed by three or four individuals.
They claimed that Nasiri was unrecognisable when the group next met him because the police had brutally battered him.
Shortly after, the Basij militia, which has been actively involved in violently repressing the protesters, was implicated in a “confession” Nasiri had made, according to local media. In this “confession,” Nasiri admitted to stabbing a Basij member.
Additionally, pictures of a man who identified himself as the victim Nasiri stabbed and had his legs bandaged circulated. This is fiction, according to his buddies.
He is currently being held in custody on a charge of “waging war against God,” a term the dictatorship uses to define anyone they perceive as posing a threat to the state.
Such crimes are punishable by death.
Iran has previously executed two persons accused of the same crime, including Majidreza Rahnavard, who was hanged earlier this week from a construction crane.
Rahnavard was accused of murdering two Basij militiamen with one knife.
Human rights advocates contend that he was brought to court unrepresented and with visible indications of torture. He confessed, according to Iranian state media.
An image collage of Rahnavard hanging from the crane with his wrists and feet bound and a black sack over his head was published by Iran’s Mizan news agency, which is part of the country’s court.
In the early hours of Monday in the Iranian city of Mashhad, masked members of the security force stood watch in front of metal and concrete barriers containing a swarm of people.
Although Iran utilised the same method of hanging to quell dissent following the disputed 2009 presidential election and the riots that followed, public executions using a crane have been increasingly unusual in recent years.
Usually, individuals who have been condemned are still alive when the crane takes them off of their feet. They are dangling by a rope and trying to breathe before they pass out or break their neck.
In the city of Mashhad last month, Rahnavard was charged with carrying out the incident in which four fighters were allegedly hurt.
He was later apprehended on November 19 while attempting to leave the country, according to Iranian authorities who did not specify a reason for the attack.
For allegedly obstructing a thoroughfare and injuring a security guard at the outset of the protests, Mohsen Shekari, 23, received a death sentence.
Shekari was accused of “waging war against God” by the Iranian government after it was claimed that he “stabbed the left shoulder of a Basiji” while blocking Sattar Khan Boulevard on September 25 during a riot in Tehran, according to the official IRNA news agency.
“Mohsen sacrificed his life for liberty. He wished for a routine life. An Iranian journalist and activist named Masih Alinejad uploaded a picture on Twitter that she said was of Shekari, adding, “One more brave person assassinated by this terrible dictatorship.”
The execution occurs at a time when additional detainees could also be put to death for their participation in the protests, which started as a backlash against Iran’s morality police but have since grown to become one of the most significant challenges to theocracy in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Considering that at least a dozen people have already been given the death penalty for taking part in the demonstrations, activists warn that other executions could occur soon.
According to court documents seen by AFP, Haidar al-Zaidi, 20, was given a three-year term for a disputed tweet that was considered derogatory to a pro-Iran former paramilitary unit.
Amnesty International claimed to have obtained a paper signed by a top Iranian police official requesting that one prisoner’s execution be “finished” as soon as possible.
