TEHRAN: An Iranian court has sentenced a man to death over content he posted online during 2022 protests over the death in custody of an Iranian-Kurdish woman, the judiciary said Tuesday.
Iran was gripped by months-long protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after she was arrested for an alleged breach of the strict dress code for women.
The judiciary’s Mizan Online website said Mahmoud Mehrabi was found guilty of posting content that included guidance on how “to use homemade weapons and called for the destruction of public property.”
He was convicted of “inciting people to commit killings and insulting religious sanctities,” it added.
Lawyer Babak Farsani said Mehrabi was found guilty of the capital offense of “corruption on earth.” He can appeal against the sentence before the Supreme Court.
The months-long protests sparked by Amini’s death saw hundreds of people killed in street clashes, including dozens of security personnel.
Thousands were arrested as authorities moved to quell what they branded foreign-instigated “riots.”
Last month, an Iranian court sentenced popular rapper Toomaj Salehi to death for supporting the demonstrations.
Nine men have been executed in protest-related cases involving killings and other violence against security forces.
Amnesty International says Iran executed 853 people in 2023, the highest total since 2015.
Iran sentences man to death for posts during 2022 protests
https://arab.news/9tyyx
Iran sentences man to death for posts during 2022 protests
- Mahmoud Mehrabi was convicted of inciting killings, insulting religious sanctities
China’s national security agency in Hong Kong summons international media representatives
HONG KONG: China’s national security agency in Hong Kong summoned international media representatives for a “regulatory talk” on Saturday, saying some had spread false information and smeared the government in recent reports on a deadly fire and upcoming legislative elections.
Senior journalists from several major outlets operating in the city, including AFP, were summoned to the meeting by the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), which was opened in 2020 following Beijing’s imposition of a wide-ranging national security law on the city.
Through the OSNS, Beijing’s security agents operate openly in Hong Kong, with powers to investigate and prosecute national security crimes.
“Recently, some foreign media reports on Hong Kong have disregarded facts, spread false information, distorted and smeared the government’s disaster relief and aftermath work, attacked and interfered with the Legislative Council election, (and) provoked social division and confrontation,” an OSNS statement posted online shortly after the meeting said.
At the meeting, an official who did not give his name read out a similar statement to media representatives.
He did not give specific examples of coverage that the OSNS had taken issue with, and did not take questions.
The online OSNS statement urged journalists to “not cross the legal red line.”
“The Office will not tolerate the actions of all anti-China and trouble-making elements in Hong Kong, and ‘don’t say we didn’t warn you’,” it read.
For the past week and a half, news coverage in Hong Kong has been dominated by a deadly blaze on a residential estate which killed at least 159 people.
Authorities have warned against crimes that “exploit the tragedy” and have reportedly arrested at least three people for sedition in the fire’s aftermath.
Dissent in Hong Kong has been all but quashed since Beijing brought in the national security law, after huge and sometimes violent protests in 2019.
Hong Kong’s electoral system was revamped in 2021 to ensure that only “patriots” could hold office, and the upcoming poll on Sunday will select a second batch of lawmakers under those rules.
