Iran carried out the first public execution in more than two years yesterday Saturday, by hanging a man convicted of murdering a policeman, as reported by the French Agency (AFP) citing an NGO.

Iman Sabzikar, a laborer convicted of murdering a policeman last February in the city of Shiraz (southern Iran), was hanged early this morning at the scene of the crime, the Norwegian NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said based on information transmitted by state media in Iran.

Sabzikar’s death sentence was upheld in early July by the country’s Supreme Court.

“The repetition of this brutal punishment in public is intended to terrorize and intimidate people from protesting,” said Mahmoud Amiri-Moghadam, director of the IHR. The latter also called on the international community to react strongly and protest against this “medieval” practice.

Images released on social media purportedly capturing the public execution show a man in a prisoner’s uniform hanging several meters above the ground from a rope attached to a crane, APA MPA reports.

Executions in Iran are usually carried out in prisons. Public executions are deterrent, especially when it comes to the killing of a member of the security forces, notes the specific NGO, underlining that the last public execution in Iran took place on June 11, 2020.

The IHR organization expresses fears that four other men who have been sentenced to death for killing police officers (in different cases) will have the same fate. At the same time, it notes that the number of executions in Iran has doubled in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2021.

In recent weeks, activists have expressed concern about the growing crackdown in Iran as the economic crisis sparks a wave of protests. Among others, well-known intellectuals and filmmakers have been arrested.

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