Iran executes two men convicted of blasphemy

Iran has executed two men who were convicted of "burning the Quran" and "insulting the Prophet of Islam", the country's judiciary says.

Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare ran dozens of social media accounts "dedicated to atheism and desecration of the sanctities", the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported.

Mr Mehdad's lawyer had insisted that he was innocent and his sentence unjust.

A rights group called their executions "a cruel act by a medieval regime".

There has been a surge in executions in the Islamic Republic amid continuing anti-government unrest, but those for blasphemy convictions are rare.

Mizan said Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare were hanged at Arak Prison in central Iran on Monday morning.

The two men were arrested in 2020 and accused of running a Telegram channel called "Criticism of Superstition and Religion", according to Iran's Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). They were held in solitary confinement for the first two months and denied access to a lawyer, it said.

In 2021, the Arak Criminal Court convicted Mr Mehrad and Mr Fazeli-Zare on blasphemy charges and sentenced them to death, HRANA added. They were also given six-year prison sentences for "running groups to act against national security".

The Supreme Court rejected their appeals against the verdicts and upheld their death sentences later that year, Mizan said, adding that both men had "clearly confessed to their crimes".

Human rights group say Iranian courts regularly fall far short of providing fair trials and use false "confessions" obtained under torture as evidence.

"The execution of Yousef and Sadrollah for 'insulting the Prophet' is not only a cruel act by a medieval regime, it is also a serious insult to the freedom of expression," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based group Iran Human Rights.

"These executions must be a turning point in the relations between the Islamic Republic and countries respecting the freedom of expression," he added. "Lack of a strong reaction by the international community sends a green light to the Islamic Republic and their ideological allies worldwide."

On Saturday, a Swedish-Iranian dual national accused of being behind a deadly attack on a military parade in 2018 was hanged. The European Union condemned "in the strongest terms" the execution of Habib Chaab.

Iran is second only to China in the number of executions carried out annually.

It has put to death more than 200 people since the start of this year, according to a tally by Iran Human Rights.

The group has said the number of executions rose by 75% to 582 last year, as authorities sought to "spread fear" among those taking part in the nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September.