Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Iranian election protesters receive death sentences

Jeffrey Fleishman And Ramin Mostaghim Los Angeles Times

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran announced Saturday that two people have been sentenced to death for joining the nationwide uprising following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June, when hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters clashed for weeks with police and paramilitary forces.

The death sentences are the latest indication that Ahamdinejad’s hard-line camp is intensifying efforts to suppress another possible round of anti-government rallies. Security forces including the Revolutionary Guard have backed the president and in recent weeks have imposed a tight grip on the capital Tehran and other major cities.

The defendants reportedly belong to two groups seeking to overthrow the government: People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, which is based in Paris and Iraq, and the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, a monarchist group with a base in London. Iran regards both as terrorist organizations.

The accused were charged for their role “in the post-election incidents (and) have been sentenced to death,” said Zahed Bashiri Rad, media officer at the justice ministry, quoted by ISNA news agency Saturday. He added that the sentences are “not final and can still be appealed to the supreme court.”

There was confusion over the details of a third defendant sentenced to death earlier last week. An opposition Web site reported Thursday that Muhammad Reza Ali Zamani, a member of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, was sentenced to hang for post-election unrest. The justice ministry claims Zamani had been jailed before the June 12 presidential elections for his alleged role in a mosque bombing.

On Friday, Amnesty International reported that Zamani was the first person to receive the death penalty for the recent street demonstrations. It urged the Iranian government to rescind the sentence on Zamani, who it said was charged with “enmity against God for membership of and activities to further the aims of the terrorist group” Kingdom Assembly.

The human rights group reported on its Web site that 13 other detainees face possible death sentences.