LONDON – Iran hanged two men convicted in the wake of the unrest that erupted after last year’s disputed election, as a top opposition figure predicted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be ousted before the end of his term.
US president Barack Obama warned Tehran it faced “growing consequences” over its nuclear programme and said international consensus against it was building. Russia said patience with Tehran was running out.
The two men executed at dawn yesterday were among 11 sentenced to death on charges including moharebeh (waging war against God), trying to overthrow the Islamic establishment and membership of armed groups, the student news agency Isna said.
The June election was followed by huge opposition rallies, plunging Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The opposition says the vote was rigged to secure Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election. The authorities deny it.
“Following the riots and anti-revolutionary measures in recent months, particularly on the day of Ashura, a Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court branch considered the cases of a number of accused and handed down the execution sentences against 11 of those,” Isna said. “The sentences against two of these people . . . were carried out today at dawn and the accused were hanged.”
It named them as Mohammad Reza Alizamani and Arash Rahmanipour. The lawyer for Mr Rahmanipour (19), said he was detained before the election. She said the charges were political and the verdict “illegal and unjust”.
“An execution with this speed and rush has only one explanation . . . the government is trying to prevent the expansion of the current [opposition] movement through the spread of fear and intimidation,” lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh said.
In August, state broadcaster IRIB said Mr Rahmanipour had confessed to links with western countries and had a mission to plant bombs at election time. The cases of the other nine are at the appeal stage. Isna said the charges included membership of two anti-revolutionary groups, including a pro-monarchy association.
Iran’s English-language Press TV said the two put to death were members of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, which it said was involved in a deadly mosque bombing in Shiraz in 2008.