LONDON: Iran has executed a protester accused of killing a member of the security forces despite serious flaws in his legal proceedings.
Mostafa Salehi was convicted of shooting a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during anti-government protests in Isfahan province in 2018. He was executed on Aug. 5.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said there has been “little information about whether Salehi had access to legal counsel and was tried under fair legal standards.”
The group condemned his execution, and Tehran’s liberal use of the death penalty.
“Iranian authorities execute people without due process while failing to investigate serious allegations of authorities’ excessive use of force against protestors,” Tara Sepehri Far, Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.
Five other protestors from Isfahan are currently awaiting execution on death row according to HRW. The group has raised similar concerns over the integrity of their legal proceedings.
A statement from the group said: “The verdicts for five other people on death row in Isfahan showed that their trials were marred by similar violations (to that of Salehi).”
Those protestors face the death penalty for “vaguely defined national security charges,” HRW said, such as “corruption on earth” and “enmity against God.”
Salehi’s execution came just days before Iran announced it had sentenced two men to 10 years each in jail for spying.
A Judiciary spokesman said one of them, Massud Mossaheb — an Austrian-Iranian dual national — had been “spying for (Israeli spy agency) Mossad and Germany in the guise” of the general secretary of the Austrian-Iranian Society.
Mossaheb is being held at Evin prison, a notorious facility used for political prisoners where a number of foreigners or dual nationals have been detained.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a British-Australian academic serving a 10-year prison sentence for spying, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national detained on charges of spreading propaganda against Iran, have both served considerable stretches of time in Evin prison.
