A court in Iran has given a teenage boy a double death sentence for his role in anti-regime street protests.
Accused Mehdi Mohammadi Fard, 18, was given the death penalty for both ‘moharebeh’ – waging war against God – and corruption.
He was also given jail terms for a series of less-serious offences by the Revolutionary Court of Sari.
Fard – who can appeal his sentence – was seized by security officials in Nowshahr on 30th September, accused of setting fire to a traffic police kiosk nine days earlier.
But legal expert and human rights activist Moin Khazaeli said the only pieces of evidence against him were his forced confessions following hours of torture.
Fard was also allegedly denied access to a lawyer, it has emerged.
Meanwhile, a student on trial at another court in Iran has been sentenced to nine months in jail and 60 lashes for attending a street protest.
The Revolutionary Court of Zahedan found 21-year-old Aida Portaki guilty of ‘disturbance of public peace and order by attending an illegal gathering’.
Aida -an engineering mathematics student at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan – is said to have attended an anti-regime demo in Zahedan on 15th November.
Bizarrely, the court also ordered her to conduct a comparative study on the hijab and clothing of Iranian women as part of her punishment.
The sentences come as officials in Iran are cracking down on non-observance of the mandatory hijab rule.
Text messages are now reportedly being sent to women spotted removing their headscarves in their cars reminding them of the rule.
And the government has said it will close businesses that serve women who do not wear the garment.
A number of bank managers have reportedly been sacked from their jobs for providing services to women not complying with the rule.
And there are plans to use facial identification technology on women caught on CCTV without hijabs on with a view to denying them social services.
Protests broke out in Iran on 16th September after morality police fatally beat 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini for wearing her hijab “improperly”.
At least 476 protesters have been killed, while at least 100 are facing execution or death-penalty charges or sentences, according to the non-profit Iran Human Rights.
