Iranian protester Mahmoud Mehrabi, who was arrested in March 2023 for his protests against the regime, was sentenced to death on Sunday by a court in Isfahan, his lawyer, Babak Farsani, reported on X.
Mehrabi was charged with “corruption on earth,” a charge often used by the Khamenei regime to target activists and protesters.
موکلم #محمود_مهرابی از جانب شعبه۵ دادگاه انقلاب شهرستان اصفهان با اتهام افساد فی الارض طی حکم بدوی به #اعدام محکوم شد.ابلاغیه صدور رای بدون پیوست کههمکارم با حضور در شعبه و مطالعه پرونده از مفاد آن آگاه شد.امیداینکه ایرادات جدی رای بااعتراض مورد توجه دیوان عالی کشور قرار گیرد.
— Babak Farsani (@Babakirani25) May 5, 2024
Farsani added that he had not received a written version of the verdict.
Mehrabi has also been accused of publishing “propaganda” against the regime, incitement, and insulting Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic in Iran, according to Iranian opposition sources.
The reformist Ensaf News site reported that Farsani had told them that he intends to appeal the verdict, saying that the posts referenced by the court could not be considered as on the level of “corruption on earth.”
Mehrabi was first arrested in February 2023 in connection with his participation in the Women, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, and then released in March before being arrested again shortly after.
Mehrabi’s sister, Maryam Mehrabi, told Iran International on Monday that, during the protests that swept Iran in her brother “was the voice of the protesting people killed in the streets and political prisoners, and he stood up bravely with empty hands and spoke.” Maryam called for “the people to be his voice.”
Islamic regime increasing death sentences against protesters
Mehrabi is the latest in a series of activists arrested in connection with the protests that swept Iran in 2022 following the killing of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman, at the hands of the Tehran “Morality Police.”
Amini’s death sparked intense nationwide demonstrations in September 2022, commonly referred to as the “Woman, Life, Liberty” (“Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” in Kurdish) protests, which continued in full strength for months on end.
Two weeks ago, Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to death on charges of “corruption on earth” as well. Salehi was arrested during the Women, Life, Freedom protests.
In March, Shahriar Bayat, a protester arrested during the 2022 demonstrations, was sentenced to death and accused of “blasphemy” and of “insulting the prophet of Islam, Shia Imams, and other Islamic sanctities,” according to the Hengaw human rights organization and the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Reza Rasaei, another protester arrested during the 2022 protests who was sentenced to death last year, is at “imminent risk” of execution, activists have warned in recent weeks.
Mojahed Kourkour, a protester who the regime has accused of involvement in the death of a child during the 2022 protests, was also sentenced to death last year and is also at risk of execution. Human rights groups have found that the murder blamed on Kourkour was likely carried out by the regime’s security forces, not Kourkour.
The newest death sentence also comes as the regime intensifies its crackdown on hijab restrictions in several cities in the past few weeks, with violent arrests reported across the country by opposition groups and human rights agencies.
Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, warned last month that the regime is waging an “all-out war” against Iranian women. Mohammadi called on Iranians from all classes and all walks of life, both inside and outside Iran, to protest the “war, aggression, rape, and beating of women.”
The intensified assault on women across Iran comes after the regime announced the “Nour Project.” The project, aimed at “dealing with anomalies,” has involved a heavy presence of the “Morality Police” in several cities.
The Islamic regime in Iran has been gradually intensifying enforcement of hijab laws since they were somewhat relaxed in light of nationwide protests that swept Iran in 2022.
