Majidreza Rahnavard: Iran executes second prisoner amid nationwide protests against theocracy

Iranian authorities have executed a second prisoner who was arrested and sentenced amid widespread protests against the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, officials said Monday.

Majidreza Rahnavard was convicted of stabbing two security force members to death and injuring four others last month in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, the agency reported. Iranian state press.

Rahnavard, who was executed early on Monday and was among six others on trial for crimes carrying the death penalty, was convicted in a show trial, human rights activists said.

According to footage released by state media, a man was seen chasing another on a street corner and standing over them before stabbing the person. The assailant was believed to be Rahnavard, state television said.

The deceased was identified as a Basij “student” – known as paramilitary volunteers under the Khamenei regime’s revolutionary guard, Mizan reported.

Basij volunteers have been deployed by the Iranian government to major cities burning in the rage of protests for attacking and detaining protesters seen fighting brutal authoritarian force.

No motive was attributed to Rahnavard’s alleged stabbings and he was accused of attempting to flee Iran at the time of his arrest, Mizan reported.

He was convicted for “moharebeha Farsi word meaning “to wage war against God”. Iranian regimes have used the accusation against others since 1979 and impose the death penalty on those accused of it.

Iranian state media claims the wrestler confessed to the charges. But opposition sources said he was denied access to a lawyer and was tortured, reports The post of Jerusalem.

This is the second execution by Iran in a week, signaling the urgency with which the Islamic nation is now carrying out death sentences for detained protesters in an effort to quell protests that have rocked the nation since September of this year after the death of a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the vice squad.

At least a dozen other protesters face the death penalty in Iran and are expected to be executed soon.

Amnesty International said it has identified at least 18 other people at risk of execution because of their links to the ongoing protests rocking the Islamic nation.

A dozen people are already suspected of having been sentenced to death behind closed doors, activists have warned.

At least 488 people have been killed during protests in Iran, human rights activists in Iran have said.

A further 18,200 people are likely to be detained by authorities, said the organization monitoring protests in the country.