A court in the capital Tehran pronounced the death penalty, the judicial authority said on Sunday on the Internet. The convicted person was found guilty, among other things, of setting fire to a government building, “disturbing public order” and threatening “national security”.
The Iranian parliament had previously denied reports that a majority of MPs had called for harsh penalties for detained demonstrators in Iran. “The letter from 227 MPs mentioned in the media was a forged document and the reports in this regard are therefore denied,” the parliament announced in a press statement on Sunday.
Some MPs only called for harsh penalties for those involved in the killings and bloodshed during the unrest, the FARS news agency said in a statement. Observers viewed the allegation of an alleged forgery as a backtracking.
According to media reports, 227 of the 290 parliamentarians issued a statement last week accusing the participants in the nationwide protests of “war against God” and demanding corresponding verdicts from the judiciary. According to Islamic law, the “war against God” charge could also result in the death penalty – and that’s how it was evaluated at home and abroad.
Observers in the country believe that the claim that the statement picked up by the state media was a forgery is not credible. Therefore, according to their assessment, the denial is only an attempt to withdraw the call for the de facto death penalty for the protesters, which has been condemned in the strongest possible terms at home and abroad. Iran’s parliament has been dominated by hardliners since 2020, known for their radical – and ill-considered – decisions ever since.
Source: Nachrichten
