Iran halts execution of anti-government protesters on death row | World News

Iran’s supreme court has agreed to suspend the executions of three men sentenced to death for their participation in anti-government protests in November, whose sentences sparked an online protest last week.

The men’s lawyers, Saeed Tamjidi, 26, Mohammad Rajabi, 28 and Amirhossein Moradi, 26, said in a statement on Sunday that the country’s supreme court had agreed to examine the men’s request for a new trial.

All three were convicted earlier this year for crimes including sabotage, armed robbery, and illegally fleeing the country in connection with their involvement in one of the largest outbreaks of public dissent in the history of the Islamic Republic last year.

A sudden spike in gasoline prices last November sparked days of protests and a forceful government response in which at least 300 people were killed, according to human rights groups, and more than 7,000 arrested.

Last Tuesday’s announcement that the supreme court had rejected an appeal against the convictions sparked protests on social media, including from prominent Iranian bloggers, athletes, actors and political figures, who tweeted images of the men, their names and words on Farsi for “don’t execute”.

United States President Donald Trump also tweeted about the men in English and Farsi publications.

Iranian newspapers the next day published headlines that included “Hold on” and “477”, referring to an article under Iranian law that allows the head of the judiciary to overturn verdicts that are considered “in contravention of Islamic law.”

Rajabi and Tamjidi had applied for asylum in Turkey after they were initially released, according to activists, but the Turkish authorities refused to register or process the asylum claims of the two men and deported them in December.

Human rights groups say the three reported being beaten or tortured during their detention, including with electric shocks.

Iran executed about 251 people last year, according to Amnesty International. He has issued a series of death sentences in recent weeks, including opposition journalist Ruhollah Zam, and in recent days has executed two Kurdish men in connection with an armed attack in 2010, one man for repeated drinking and the other who was convicted of spying for the CIA.

Meanwhile, there was another explosion at an Iranian power plant on Sunday, the latest in a series of incidents at military, nuclear and industrial sites that have led to speculation that the country is being the target of an undercover sabotage campaign.

The blast occurred at a plant in central Isfahan province and there were no casualties, the official IRNA news agency reported. It was caused by the wear and tear of a transformer at the power plant, the managing director of the Isfahan electric company told IRNA.

At least one of the incidents, an explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility in Isfahan, is believed to have been the result of a hostile act, but some others could be the result of poor maintenance or training.

Analysts have speculated that some of the incidents could be aimed at inciting Iran to military retaliation in the last leg of Trump’s first term, in anticipation of a new administration that could push to restart diplomacy with the Islamic Republic.