After first known execution over protests in Iran: Unrest likely to 'get worse'

Dec 8, 2022
Iranian authorities carried out the first known execution on Thursday over the ongoing anti-government unrest that has shaken the Islamic regime over the past few months.
Mohsen Shekari, 23, had been convicted and sentenced to death for blocking a street and wounding a member of the Basij force, a paramilitary branch of the nation's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, during the early phase of the demonstrations in mid-September.
Since the start of the anti-government rallies, plainclothes Basij personnel mingled with demonstrators at protest sites to try to calm them.
The judiciary said Shekari had also been convicted of "moharebeh" — or waging "war against God," a charge that carries the death penalty under Iran's Shariah or Islamic law.
The accusation of "war against God" is considered one of the most serious in Iran. But the crime is not clearly defined and no one knows what it exactly means, offering room for interpretation.
The judiciary is now applying the term in its broadest sense to intimidate the protesters. Rights groups have slammed the legal process, describing it as a show trial.