Eleven people are currently imprisoned with death sentences. In addition to these, there are also six people awaiting trial where there is a risk that they will be sentenced to execution, and three people where there is no public information about whether they have already been sentenced, according to a survey by Amnesty.
There is a risk that these numbers will continue to rise, according to Maja Åberg, policy advisor at Amnesty.
– It is difficult to know what will happen in the future, but thousands have been arrested for involvement in the protests. And given that Iran had already executed an incredible number of people before the protests began, there is a risk that the executions will continue, she says.
Public executions
The latest of the two executions linked to the protests was carried out on Monday against 23-year-old Majidreza Rahnavard. This execution took place in public and has also been disseminated through images published by the pro-regime news agency Mizan.
– A public execution becomes even more terrible because it becomes part of keeping an entire people in fear. Not to mention how it affects the person himself and his relatives, says Maja Åberg.
“No one escapes”
Among those who risk being executed for their criticism of the regime in Iran are the artist Toomaj Salehi and the soccer player Amir Nasr-Azadani. According to Maja Åberg, there is a special significance to punishing well-known people like these.
– It’s probably a way to show that no one gets away with sending a signal that it doesn’t matter how famous and established a person is. If you protest, you risk getting hurt and, in the worst case, being executed.