Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi denied the charges brought against them.
Iran’s judiciary suggested it could halt the executions of three convicted youths in connection with the massive anti-government protests in November, following a campaign on social media.
The Persian hashtag #do_not_execute was used five million times after it was announced Tuesday that the Supreme Court had upheld his death sentences.
Many celebrities endorsed the campaign.
On Wednesday night, the judiciary said its boss would consider any requests by the men to review their sentences.
Lawyers for the three men were also reportedly told that they could examine court documents and evidence against their clients for the first time.
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Iran is the second most prolific state executioner in the world after China.
Despite having to deal with the largest Covid-19 outbreak in the Middle East, which has killed more than 13,000 people and deepened an economic crisis, the Iranian authorities have continued to try capital cases and execute death sentences.
Early Tuesday, two Kurdish men were executed in Urumieh prison in the province of West Azerbaijan.
Diaku Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdollah, who were in their 20s and 30s respectively, had been on death row since 2015. They were convicted of planting a bomb at a military parade in Mahabad in 2010.
Diaku Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdollah were executed early Tuesday
Their lawyer told BBC Persian that they were innocent and that no evidence was presented at their trial other than confessions extracted under severe torture.
Amnesty International said the two men were “the latest victims of Iran’s deeply flawed criminal justice system, which is systematically based on false evidence.”
Hours later, the spokesman for the Iranian judiciary confirmed that the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences of the three anti-government protesters.
Allegedly in their 20s, Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi were arrested during the November riots, which were triggered by the government’s decision to increase the price of gasoline.
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Millions of Iranians took to the streets of cities and towns across the country to protest against poverty, inflation and economic mismanagement. They were violently received by the security forces and hundreds were killed.
Amnesty International said the three men sentenced to death in connection with the protests were subjected to “extremely unfair trials”.
“Their accusations of torture and other ill-treatment were ignored and Amirhossein Moradi’s ‘confessions’ were extracted without an attorney present, reportedly through beatings, electric shocks and being hung upside down, to condemn them for ‘enmity against God’ through acts of arson and vandalism, “he added.
Graffiti in Tehran that says: “Our defenders are in danger of being executed”
Many prominent figures both inside and outside of Iran joined the social media campaign to stop their executions.
Footballer Masoud Shojaei posted on his Instagram page: “I ask Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi: Please be merciful to these three young Iranians. Please keep up your execution. due to the request of their families and people. “
Actor Shahaab Hosseini wrote: “Swearing on the prophet of kindness and compassion, please stop the executions of these three young men.”
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, also called for the executions to be stopped.
Iran’s judiciary also announced last month that Ruhollah Zam, a dissident journalist and founder of the influential Telegram account AmadNews, had been sentenced to death for “spreading corruption on earth.”
One of the charges he faced was encouraging people to participate in anti-government protests in 2017 and 2018.
Zam was based in Paris, but the Iranian Revolutionary Guard intelligence service lured him to Iraq and then kidnapped him and took him back to Iran.
Iran’s government has not offered much help to those affected by the economic crisis, and the country’s leaders have expressed concern over future unrest.
Many Iranian human rights activists believe that by carrying out executions and sentencing protesters to death, the leaders hope to scare people into not returning to the streets.
