Iran executes man over killing of Revolutionary Guard

Iran on Tuesday executed a man convicted of killing a Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officer during protests in 2022.

"Gholamreza Rasaei was executed this morning [Tuesday] in Kermanshah prison," the judiciary's Mirza Online website said.

What else do we know about the verdict?

Kermanshah is a Kurdish-majority city in western Iran and is the capital of a province of the same name.

The judiciary's Mirza website said that the defendant was convicted of "stabbing to death a Revolutionary Guards colonel during the illegal protests in November 2022."

Colonel Nader Bayrami was in charge of the IRGC's intelligence unity in the city of Sahneh in Kermanshah province, according to the Tasnim news agency.

Mirza cited the Kermanshah regional prosecutor as saying that the accused confessed to the crime and that the opinion of a forensic pathologist demonstrated that the knife used to kill Bayrami was owned by Rasaei.

The Kurdish rights group Hengaw reported that Rasaei was a Kurd and a member of a religious minority group.

Man convicted over protest violence

Predominantly Kurdish areas of western Iran served as a major center of demonstrations that followed the death of Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022 after she was detained for allegedly improperly wearing her headscarf under Iran's dress code.

Amini was herself a Kurd from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan province, which borders Kermanshah.

Hundreds of people were killed during demonstrations, including dozens of security personnel. Authorities denounced the protests as "riots" instigated by outside forces.

So far, 10 people have been executed on charges of murder or other violence against security forces during demonstrations.

According to the Amnesty International rights group, Iran carries out the largest amount of yearly executions in the world after China.

sdi/rmt (AFP, Reuters)