According to state-affiliated Fars News, Iran murdered two individuals on Saturday, increasing the total number of those executed in connection with the September protests to four.
Fars News stated that Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini were hanged early Saturday morning. The couple, who allegedly participated in anti-regime protests last year, were found guilty of murdering Basij member Seyed Ruhollah Ajamian in Karaj on November 3, according to Iran’s judiciary news agency Mizan.
A lawyer for Karami, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, tweeted on Saturday that Karami was not allowed to communicate with his family before his death. The attorney claimed that Karami began a hunger strike on Wednesday as a form of protest against officials for denying Aghasi the opportunity to defend him.
In December, Karami’s parents appealed for his life over social media. The father of the 21-year-old karate champion said, “Please, I ask you, remove the execution order from my son’s file.”
According to statements from Iranian officials and Iranian media analyzed by CNN and 1500Tasvir, as many as 41 additional protestors have been sentenced to death in Iran, although the number might be significantly higher.
Mehdi Beyk, the editor-in-chief of politics for the independent Iranian newspaper Etemad Online, was arrested on Thursday, according to a tweet from the site. The arrest occurred in the midst of a crackdown by Iranian authorities in response to the protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended by the state’s morality police for reportedly not wearing her hijab correctly. Since then, the protests have crystallized around numerous grievances against the autocratic leadership.
Beyk was detained by Iranian Ministry of Information authorities, according to his wife, Zahra Beyk.
According to the pro-reform activist website IranWire, he was arrested after “interviewing the families of a number of those arrested in the present protests.”
His wife tweeted that his “mobile phone, laptop, and possessions were confiscated.” It is currently unknown why Beyk was detained.
Officials in Iran have previously detained individuals for criticizing the government’s response to the protests.
Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most renowned actresses, was released on bail on Wednesday, according to the state-aligned ISNA. She was imprisoned after criticizing the death of a protester.
Alidoosti, a well-known feminist activist, posted a photo of herself without the Islamic headscarf and holding a banner reading “Women, Life, Freedom” on Instagram last month in support of the protest movement.
Alidoosti was not formally prosecuted but was first arrested for “lack of evidence for her assertions” in reference to her protest against the death of Mohsen Shekari last month, which was the first execution believed to be linked to the protests.