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Iran protests: 400 people sentenced to prison over Tehran unrest

14 December 2022 11:34 (UTC +04:00)

Courts in Iran's capital have handed prison terms of up to 10 years to 400 people arrested at anti-government protests, a judiciary official says.

Tehran's prosecutor-general said 160 "rioters" were sentenced to between five and 10 years, 80 to between two and five years, and 160 to two years or less, APA reports citing BBC.

Another 70 were fined, Ali Alqasimehr added, without providing any details.

It comes a day after authorities hanged a second man convicted over the unrest.

The judiciary announced on Monday morning that Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, had been executed in public in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.

A Revolutionary Court convicted him less than two weeks ago of the charge of "enmity against God" after finding he had stabbed to death two members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force.

Amnesty International said he was subjected to a sham trial and that the judiciary was "a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on protesters daring to stand up to the status quo".

Iran has been engulfed by protests against the country's clerical establishment for almost three months.

They erupted following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police in Tehran on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, "improperly".

Authorities have portrayed the protests as foreign-backed "riots" and responded with lethal force.

So far, at least 490 protesters, including 68 children and 62 security personnel have been killed during the unrest, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA).

It has also reported the arrest of more than 18,200 people in connection with the protests, of whom 3,780 have been identified.