Iran hangs two in unusual blasphemy case as executions surge | World News

Iran hanged two males Monday convicted of blasphemy, authorities talked about, ending up unusual demise sentences for the crime as executions surge all through the Islamic Republic following months of unrest.

Iran stays one in every of many world’s excessive executioners, having put to demise a minimal of 203 prisoners as a result of the start of this 12 months alone, in accordance with the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. Nevertheless ending up executions for blasphemy stays unusual, as earlier cases observed the sentences lowered by authorities.

The two males executed, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, died at Arak Jail in central Iran. They’d been arrested in Might 2020, accused of worrying in a channel on the Telegram message app often called “Critique of Superstition and Religion,” in accordance with the US Price on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom. Every males confronted months of solitary confinement and couldn’t contact their households, the payment talked about.

The Mizan data firm of Iran’s judiciary confirmed the executions, describing the two males as having insulted Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and promoted atheism.

Mizan moreover accused them of burning a Quran, Islam’s holy e-book, though it wasn’t clear whether or not or not the boys allegedly did that or such imagery was shared inside the Telegram channel.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, who leads Iran Human Rights, decried the executions as exposing the “medieval nature” of Iran’s theocracy.

“The worldwide neighborhood ought to current with its response that executions for expressing an opinion is intolerable,” he talked about in an announcement. “The refusal of the worldwide neighborhood to react decisively is a inexperienced delicate for the Iranian authorities and all their like-minded people all around the world.”

It wasn’t immediately clear when Iran carried out its remaining execution for blasphemy. Completely different nations inside the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia, moreover allow for demise sentences to be imposed for blasphemy.

The streak of executions, along with members of ethnic minority groups in Iran, comes as monthslong protests over the September demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the nation’s morality police have cooled.

Already, a minimal of 4 people charged over alleged crimes from the demonstrations have been put to demise. The protests, which reportedly observed over 500 people killed and 19,000 others arrested, marked one in every of many biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy as a result of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In 2022, Iran executed a minimal of 582 people, up from 333 people in 2021, in accordance with Iran Human Rights. Amnesty Worldwide’s most-recent report on executions put Iran as a result of the world’s second-largest executioner, behind solely China, the place lots of are believed to be put to demise a 12 months.