Iranian Protester Receives Death Penalty for “Spying for Israel”

An Iranian court has sentenced a protester to death on charges of "spying for Israel," human rights groups reported. 

Shahin Wasaf was arrested during nationwide demonstrations in September 2022. 

He and his cousin, Nasser Wasaf, were detained by agents of the Urmia Intelligence Department and were later transferred to the city’s central prison. 

The Norway-based human rights group Hengaw reported that their trial was held without legal representation. 

The defendants were also denied access to lawyers and family visits throughout their detention, and they were subjected to "severe torture" to extract confessions. 

Nasser Wasaf has since been released.

The number of people given capital punishment across Iran reached a 12-month high in January, with at least 35 people being sentenced to death during that month, according to the activist HRANA news agency.

As many as 86 individuals were executed in January, it also said, stressing that capital punishment in Iran is “routinely imposed following trials that fall short of due process guarantees, in a judicial system that lacks transparency and impartiality, and for crimes that do not amount to the most serious crimes under international law.”