Iran International:

Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, a 30-year-old boxing coach arrested in March 2020 protests over gas price hikes, his lawyer said Saturday, hours after the execution of seven other political prisoners.

Vafaei has been charged with "spreading corruption on earth through arson and destruction of public property," according to his lawyer Babak Paknia.

He initially received the death sentence from the Mashhad Revolutionary Court in January 2022.

Paknia said the 9th branch of the Supreme Court decided to uphold Vafaei's verdict "despite numerous flaws."

"Regarding the flaws and the involvement of third parties in the trial process, correspondence was made with the head of the judiciary," he said. "I hope that his special inspectors intervene before it is too late."

The decision was made public hours after Iran’s judiciary executed seven political prisoners, including one Kurdish man in Sanandaj, western Iran, and six ethnic Arab inmates in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province in the south.

Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, a Kurdish political prisoner from Sanandaj in western Iran, was executed after more than 15 years in detention, the Judiciary's Mizan news agency reported.

Mohammadi Khiyareh was first arrested in February 2010 and sentenced to death by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of moharebeh—“enmity against God.” The Supreme Court initially overturned the ruling, replacing it with a 15-year prison term for alleged membership in opposition groups. However, following pressure from security agencies, the court reinstated the death sentence after a retrial.

Mizan also reported the execution of six people in Khuzestan Province on security-related charges but withheld their names, a move that rights groups said makes the cases “secret executions.”

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