Iran has hanged a young man with mental health issues after he took part in the Mahsa Amini mass demonstrations.
Mohammad Ghobadlou, 23, was executed on Tuesday morning, according to Iran’s judiciary-run Mizan news agency.
He allegedly ran over a policeman and killed him during a protest near the capital of Tehran in September 2022.
Mr Ghobadlou was convicted of murder and “corruption on Earth” in a trial which Amnesty International and other human rights groups have smeared with accusations of torture.
Activists say Mr Ghobadlou was beaten repeatedly, denied access to a lawyer and deprived of his bipolar medication so he would “confess”.
Several appeals were made for the courts to take Mr Ghobadlou’s bipolar diagnosis into account but they were reportedly refused.
His mother had pleaded with the judiciary and told them her son had stopped taking his bipolar medication two months before the protests broke out.
The unrest was triggered when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody after she had been detained by morality police for wearing her hijab “improperly”.
On Monday night, Mr Ghobadlou's lawyer, Amir Raesian, called his client’s execution an illegal “murder”.
He claims the Supreme Court struck down Mr Ghobadlou's death sentence in July – because of his mental health condition – but Mizan insists this is not true.
The agency reports that the Supreme Court rejected this appeal twice.
Mr Ghobadlou is the ninth person to be executed in relation to the Mahsa Amini protests so far.
At least four others are believed to have been handed the death penalty while 15 more are at risk of being subjected to it.
