Five protesters receive death sentences in Iran

Another four people have been sentenced to death in connection with the anti-government protests in Iran, bringing the total to five since Sunday.

Revolutionary Courts in Tehran found one of the unnamed defendants hit and killed a policeman with his car, the judiciary's Mizan news agency said.

The second stabbed a security officer, and the third tried to block traffic and spread "terror", it alleged.

The fourth was convicted of a knife attack, Mizan reported late on Tuesday.

Human rights activists condemned the death sentences, which can be appealed, saying they were the results of unfair trials.

"Protesters don't have access to lawyers in the interrogation phase, they are subjected to physical and mental torture to give false confessions, and sentenced based on the confessions," the director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told AFP news agency.

At least 348 protesters have been killed and 15,900 others arrested in a crackdown by security forces on what Iran's leaders have portrayed as foreign-backed "riots", according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which is also based outside the country.

At least 15 detainees are believed to be facing security-related charges that are punishable by death under Iran's Sharia-based legal system, including "moharebeh" (enmity against God) and "efsad fil-arz" (corruption on Earth).

The women-led protests against clerical rule erupted after the death in custody three months ago of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly breaking the strict rules on hijabs.

The judiciary's announcements came after six people were reportedly killed amid a fresh wave of unrest that began on Tuesday.

Activists called for three days of demonstrations and strikes to commemorate "Bloody November" - a reference to the deadly crackdown on the last major wave of protests that began on 15 November 2019, when many Iranians reacted angrily to a sudden increase in fuel prices.

Videos posted on social media on Tuesday showed crowds in Tehran and other major cities chanting slogans against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including "death to the dictator".

Another video from a metro station appeared to show officers beating people inside a train carriage, while in a third, people were seen running and falling over as security forces allegedly opened fire.

State media reported that "rioters" shot dead two members of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), including a colonel, in Bukan and Kamyaran.

They also said that a cleric who was a member of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force, which is controlled by the IRGC, died after being hit by a Molotov cocktail in the southern city of Shiraz.

State media have so far reported the deaths of 38 security personnel since the protests began. HRANA has put the toll at 43.