Iran's Raisi promises to pursue crackdown on protesters

10/12/2022 5:59

        A prominent dissenting Sunni cleric on Friday said the death sentence of a protester involved in recent Iranian anti-government unrest violated sharia law, as
        President Ebrahim Raisi promised to press on with a security crackdown a day after the man's execution.
        
        On Thursday, Iran hanged Mohsen Shekari, who had been convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and blocking a street in Tehran, the first such execution after thousands of arrests over the unrest, drawing a chorus of Western condemnation.
        
        Nationwide protests that erupted after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 pose one of the biggest challenges to theocratic rule in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
        
        "The identification, trial and punishment of the perpetrators of the martyrdom (killing) of security forces will be pursued with determination," Raisi said at a ceremony honouring security forces killed during protests, according to state media.