Protesters can face death penalty

People protest near the university of Tehran, Iran on Dec. 30, 2017. (Reuters)

TEHRAN: The head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has reportedly warned that arrested protesters could potentially face death penalty cases when they come to trial.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Mousa Ghazanfarabadi on Tuesday as saying: “Obviously one of their charges can be Moharebeh,” or waging war against God. That is a death penalty offense in Iran.
Ghazanfarabadi also was quoted as saying some protesters will come to trial soon on charges of acting against national security and damaging public properties. He also stressed that attending rallies not sanctioned by Iran’s Interior Ministry, which oversees police, was illegal.
Iran’s Revolutionary Court handles cases involving alleged attempts to overthrow the government.
Violent demonstrations have rocked Iran since Thursday last week.
The wave of demonstrations that kicked off in the second city Mashhad on Dec. 28 and quickly spread is the biggest in the tightly controlled country since unrest over a disputed election in 2009.
Here is a summary:
A few hundred demonstrators gathered in Mashhad and several other towns on Dec. 28 to protest high living costs after a call reportedly goes out on the Telegram social messaging service.
Videos on reformist media showed protesters focusing their ire on President Hassan Rouhani but there were also slogans lambasting the entire regime and Iran’s involvement in conflicts around the Middle East.
The next day larger-scale protests flared up in more cities including the western Kermanshah and key religious center Qom, where footage showed hundreds of demonstrators chanting “Death to the dictator” and “Free political prisoners.”
First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri suggested hard-line opponents of Rouhani’s government might be behind the demonstrations.
The US State Department condemned the arrests and President Donald Trump insisted that Iranian authorities “respect their people's rights.”
On Dec. 30, regime supporters rallied around the country for officially sanctioned demonstrations to commemorate the defeat of the 2009 protest movement.
Interior Minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli called on the public to avoid “illegal gatherings” as “they will create problems for themselves.”
But the protests grew. In Tehran, scuffles broke out at the city’s main university and videos showed demonstrators attacking a town hall, overturning a police car and burning the Iranian flag.
Unverified footage on social media claimed to show thousands marching through the western cities of Khorramabad, Zanjan and Ahvaz.
On Dec. 31, the authorities issued more warnings and officials said 200 people were arrested during the demonstrations in Tehran and another 80 in Arak, some 300km away.
In a bid to stall further demonstrations, the authorities blocked access to online messaging services, including Telegram.
Rouhani insisted people are “absolutely free” to express their anger but “criticism is different to violence and destroying public property.”
In a second statement on Jan. 1, Rouhani played down the protests as “nothing” and insisted that the Iranian people would “respond to rioters and lawbreakers.”