Iran hanged two men convicted in the wake of the unrest that erupted after last year's disputed election, as a top opposition figure predicted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be ousted before the end of his term. The two men executed at dawn on Thursday were among 11 sentenced to death on charges including "moharebeh" (waging war against God), trying to overthrow the Islamic establishment and membership of armed groups, the student news agency ISNA said.
The June presidential election was followed by huge opposition rallies, plunging Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The opposition says the vote was rigged to secure hard-liner Ahmadinejad's re-election. The authorities deny it. Eight people were killed in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces on Ashura, the holy Shi'ite day of ritual mourning, on December 27.
"Following the riots and anti-revolutionary measures in recent months, particularly on the day of Ashura, a Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court branch considered the cases of a number of accused and handed down the execution sentences against 11 of those," ISNA said.
"The sentences against two of these people ... were carried out today at dawn and the accused were hanged," ISNA said, adding the sentences had been confirmed by an appeal court. It named them as Mohammad Reza Alizamani and Arash Rahmanipour.
The lawyer for Rahmanipour, 19, said he was detained before the election. She said the charges were political and the verdict "illegal and unjust". "An execution with this speed and rush has only one explanation ... the government is trying to prevent the expansion of the current (opposition) movement through the spread of fear and intimidation," lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh said.