In Iran, the execution of three participants in the November 2019 protests has been stopped for the time being. „We hope that the verdict will be overturned,“ Babak Paknia, one of the convicts‘ lawyers, told AFP today after the Supreme Court approved an application to reopen the trial. The death sentence against the three demonstrators had triggered violent criticism internationally.
According to the Iranian authorities, the three convicts were arrested during an „armed robbery“. Evidence was found on their cell phones that they had previously set fire to public buildings and buses.
United Nations and Trump in line
On Thursday, a group of UN legal experts called on Iran to overturn the death sentences. US President Donald Trump said execution of these three people would send „a terrible signal to the world.“
Under the hashtag „#DontExecute“, numerous people on the Internet generally called for an execution stop in the Islamic Republic. An Iranian Department of Defense official was executed two weeks ago for spying for the United States.
Protests spread
The protests in Iran in mid-November were sparked by the fact that the authorities had more than doubled fuel prices overnight. Initially, only a few cities were affected, but later the protests spread to urban areas across the country.
As a result, fuel pumps were set on fire, police stations attacked and businesses looted. The security forces put down the protests. Exact numbers of victims are not available, estimates range from 230 to more than a thousand fatalities.
