Iran Executes Two More Men in Connection with Protests

FILE PHOTO:  A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Iran Executes Two More Men in Connection with Protests

FILE PHOTO:  A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran executed two men on Saturday for killing a paramilitary force member during unprecedented protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman.

The latest hangings double the number of executions to four over the protests, which escalated into calls for an end to Iran's clerical regime, AFP said.

Two men were put to death in December, sparking global outrage and new Western sanctions against Iran.

Judicial news agency Mizan Online on Saturday reported "Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, the main perpetrators of the crime that led to the martyrdom of Ruhollah Ajamian, were hanged this morning."

The court of first instance had sentenced the two men to death in early December, it said.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of capital punishment, accusing them of killing Ajamian on November 3.

The victim belonged to the Basij militia -- linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps -- who died in Karaj, west of Tehran.

Prosecutors previously said the 27-year-old was stripped naked and killed by a group of mourners who had been paying tribute to a slain protester, Hadis Najafi.

The hangings come in defiance of a campaign by international rights groups for the lives of the two men to be spared.

Amnesty International had decried the "fast-tracked unfair group trial" of the two men which it said bore no "resemblance to a meaningful judicial proceeding".

Mohammad Mehdi Karami's father had told Iranian media that a family lawyer had not been able to access his son's case file.

Karami was 22, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR). Hosseini's age was not immediately clear.

Authorities have arrested thousands of people in the wave of demonstrations that began with the September death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22.

The Iranian Kurdish woman had been arrested by morality police for allegedly breaching the regime's strict dress code for women.

The courts have sentenced 14 people to death over the demonstrations, according to an AFP count based on official information.

- Fears for others -
Four have now been executed, two others have had their sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court, six are awaiting new trials and two others can appeal.

Dozens of other protesters face charges punishable by death, IHR said in late December.

The latest executions were the first linked to the protests in almost a month.

On December 12 Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged publicly from a crane. He had been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife, and wounding four other people, Mizan reported.

Rahnavard's execution came despite the widespread international anger sparked by the first announced execution four days earlier.

Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed on charges of wounding a member of the security forces.

In late December the US Treasury Department sanctioned Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, saying he was responsible for human rights abuses including torture and death-penalty trials of protesters.

The Treasury said the case of Shekari bore "little resemblance to a meaningful trial".

On December 12 new European Union sanctions targeted Iranian officials including hardline cleric Seyed Ahmad Khatami. He was included on the list for inciting violence against protesters, including demanding the death penalty. 



Ukraine Will Ask Allies to Boost Its Air Defenses at a Meeting in Germany, Zelenskyy Says

This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on December 26, 2024 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) stands for the National anthem of Ukraine during an award ceremony in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on December 26, 2024 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) stands for the National anthem of Ukraine during an award ceremony in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
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Ukraine Will Ask Allies to Boost Its Air Defenses at a Meeting in Germany, Zelenskyy Says

This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on December 26, 2024 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) stands for the National anthem of Ukraine during an award ceremony in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on December 26, 2024 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) stands for the National anthem of Ukraine during an award ceremony in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will again call on allies to boost its air defenses at this week's meeting in Germany, as US President-elect Donald Trump takes over later this month with a vow to end the almost three-year war quickly.

Zelenskyy said that dozens of partner countries will participate in the meeting of the Ramstein group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Thursday, “including those who can help boost our capabilities not only to defend against missiles but also against guided bombs and Russian aviation.”

“We will discuss this with them and continue to persuade them,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Saturday. “The task remains unchanged: strengthening our air defense.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin will attend the meeting. Biden was originally scheduled to attend the October summit in Ramstein, but it was postponed because of response to Hurricane Milton that battered the US.

In its last few weeks in office, the Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump is sworn in Jan. 20.

Trump claimed during his election campaign that he could end the war in one day and his comments have put a question mark over whether the United States will continue to be Ukraine’s biggest — and most important — military backer.

Zelenskyy said last week that Trump is "strong and unpredictable,” and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine, and capitalized last year on weaknesses in Ukraine’s defenses to slowly advance in eastern areas despite high losses of troops and equipment. The war’s trajectory isn’t in Ukraine’s favor. The country is shorthanded on the front line and needs continued support from its Western partners.

Zelenskyy said Saturday that Russian and North Korean troops had suffered heavy losses in the fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.

“In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroopers,” Zelenskyy said. “This is significant.”

Zelenskyy said last month that 3,000 North Korean troops had been killed and wounded in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion in August, dealing a blow to Russia’s prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from a slow-moving offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the war, and military analysts say Ukraine has lost around 40% of the land it initially captured.

In other developments, nine people were wounded in a Russian guided bomb attack on the border town of Semenivka in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region on Saturday evening, local officials said.

Moscow sent 103 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s air force, 61 drones were destroyed and 42 were lost likely due to electronic jamming.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 61 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in five regions of western Russia. No casualties were reported but Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said residential buildings and cars had been damaged by falling drone debris.