ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities have sentenced a young woman detained during January protests to 32 years in prison, amid what rights groups describe as a sharp increase in the execution of political prisoners since the US and Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign in late February.
Maryam Babajani, who was detained during the January protests in the southern city of Izeh, was recently sentenced to 32 years in prison, reported Hengaw, a Norway-based human rights organization that monitors rights violations across Iran, on Wednesday.
The sentence comes as Iran has executed around 30 protesters since February, including two Kurdish protesters - Mehrdad Mohammadinia and Ashkan Maleki - who were hanged over the past two days.
The death penalty remains one of Iran’s most powerful tools of state repression, used to stifle political dissent, intimidate the public, and deter further protests.
Iran has long been accused of using systemic abuse to extract false confessions to charges punishable by death. Detained protesters are often subjected to unfair trials lacking due process. Alleged offenses frequently include posting photos or videos of explosion sites, committing violence against security forces, colluding with foreign powers, owning or operating a Starlink device, or even following “anti-regime” social media accounts.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) routinely refers to anti-government protesters as “opponents,” while threatening deadly crackdowns and mass killings. Authorities have also imposed measures including an 88-day nationwide internet blackout.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), more than 41,000 protesters were arrested and thousands were killed during the latest nationwide anti-government protests.
Multiple calls for action have been issued following an Amnesty International report documenting photographic and video evidence since January 8 showing security forces repeatedly firing rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets and targeting unarmed protesters in the head and torso from strategic positions on streets, rooftops, residential buildings, mosques, and police stations.
“The international community must take urgent diplomatic action to protect protesters from further massacres and confront the impunity that is driving the state policy of bloodshed,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard in January.
