Iran using death penalty to suppress protests, UN rapporteur warns

The announced plan to use the death penalty against protesters was unlawful and showed authorities were willing to use executions to suppress demonstrations, said Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, on Wednesday.

An Iranian protester, Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested on January 8 during anti-government protests in Fardis, west of Tehran, has been sentenced to death and was due to be executed on Wednesday.

Even if Wednesday execution does not go ahead immediately, Sato wrote on X, the stated intent to use capital punishment and the sentencing of a protester on a moharabeh (“enmity against God”) charge show disregard for freedom of assembly and expression.

“The death penalty is not the response of a country where freedom of assembly and expression are respected,” Sato said.