Two people have been hanged for killing a soldier during nationwide protests in Iran.
Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Syed Mohammad Hussaini were found guilty of “corruption on the ground” for their alleged involvement in the death of a paramilitary officer.
Human rights groups have condemned what they call a “sinister” trial.
The family of Mr Karami, 22, say they were not allowed to see him before he was killed.
Prosecutors claimed that paramilitary officer Ruhollah Ajamian was stripped and killed by a group of mourners paying their respects to a protester who had recently been killed.
Protests against Iran’s clerical establishment erupted in September after the death in custody of a woman who was “wrongfully” detained by morality police for allegedly wearing a hijab, or headscarf.
According to the Foreign Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 516 protesters have been killed so far, including 70 children, and 19,262 others have been arrested. It also reported the death of 68 security personnel.
Many people detained after the protests have reportedly been subjected to enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment.
The men were first sentenced to death in December 2022 but appealed against their sentences after they claimed they were tortured into giving false confessions.
Lawyers representing Mr Hosseini said he was beaten and blindfolded while in prison.
“She was teased and beaten with a metal rod on the soles of her feet,” Ali Sharifzada Ardakani said.
Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentence on January 3.
Before his death, Mr Karami’s lawyer said he was on hunger strike because he was denied the right to choose his own lawyer for legal proceedings. Instead he relied on state-appointed lawyers.
Amnesty International called the trial a “speedy unfair group trial” and said Iranian authorities were seeking the death penalty for at least 26 others.
Three others have been sentenced to death in the same case, and another 11 have been sentenced to prison terms.
The latest executions bring to four the number of people hanged in Iran since December.
In December, 23-year-old Majidreza Rahnavard was publicly hanged from a crane for allegedly stabbing two members of the security forces to death and injuring four others, and another 23-year-old Mohsin Shikari was allegedly stabbed to death on a road. He was killed for blocking. and wounded a member of Iran’s Basij force with a knife.
