Iranian authorities are using capital punishment to intimidate and suppress protesters who have been demonstrating since mid-September, according to prominent human rights groups.
There are about 20 Iranians facing the threat of death row. Among them is a doctor, artist, and a soccer player.
The executions in the past week of Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, both 23 and the first people put to death over the protests, sparked an outcry, especially as Rahnavard was hanged from a crane in public rather than in prison.
But campaigners warn that more executions will inevitably follow without tougher international action, with a dozen more people already sentenced to death over the protests and a similar number charged with crimes that could see them hanged.
"Unless the political cost of the executions is increased significantly, we will be facing mass executions," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.
He accused Iran’s leaders of using executions to “spread fear among people and save the regime from the nationwide protests.”
The largely peaceful protests sparked by the death in September of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women, are posing the biggest challenge to the Iranian regime.
There have been no reports of a slackening in protest activity in recent days, including after the executions, but the movement has been marked by phases of more and less intense demonstrations.
Authorities describe those facing death sentences as “rioters” who are being judged in full accordance with the country's sharia law.
But activists express alarm over the use of vaguely worded sharia legal charges against protesters, such as “enmity against God,” “corruption on earth” and “armed rebellion,” all of which are capital crimes in Iran.
Amnesty International currently confirms 11 cases of death sentences issued against individuals over the protests, and another nine cases where individuals have been charged with crimes that could see them given the death penalty.
