For murdering protester
Iranian court imposes death penalty on police officers
March 27, 2024, 10:11 p.m
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On November 29, 2022, Iran will lose to the USA in the World Cup. A young Iranian man honks his car horn during a protest to celebrate his homeland’s defeat. But then a police officer shoots him and the man dies. The shooter now faces the death penalty.
A court in Iran has sentenced a police officer to death for allegedly killing a man during nationwide mass protests in 2022. Regional police chief Jafar Javanmardi was “sentenced to death for premeditated murder in accordance with the Islamic law of retaliation,” said Majid Ahmadi, the lawyer for the victim’s family, according to a report in the reform-oriented daily Shargh.
The victim is 27-year-old demonstrator Mehran Samak, who was hit by bullets at a rally in the northern city of Bandar Ansali, a center of the protest movement, on November 30, 2022 and then died from his injuries. According to Ahmadi, the police chief was accused of “violating the regulations on the use of firearms,” which led to the protester’s death.
According to human rights organizations abroad, Samak was shot dead by Iranian security forces after he honked a car horn to celebrate Iran’s loss to the United States at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The defeat led to Iran’s elimination from the competition and divided supporters and critics of the leadership in Tehran.
Iran was hit by a massive wave of protests after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022. The security forces took massive action against the demonstrators during the months-long rallies under the motto “Women, Life, Freedom”. Hundreds of people were killed during the months-long rallies, including dozens of security forces. There were thousands of arrests and nine executions in connection with the protests.