Rights Groups Say 214 Protesters Detained in Esfahan And 30 Hospitalized

Holding pictures of their loved ones who died in the incident calling the trial a sham and “illegal”, demanding the prosecution of those in command and not low-ranking officers.

The protesters also chanted slogans against the Revolutionary Guard and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, while surrounded by a heavy presence of security forces.

Some of the victims’ families say that the downing of a Ukrainian flight from Tehran to Kiev after takeoff by two IRGC missiles was a premeditated act amid military tensions with the United States.

The plane with 176 passengers and crew was targeted on January 8, 2020, hours after Iran fired ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq and was on alert for a possible retaliation. But authorities did not close the civilian airspace and tried to deny they had shot down the passenger plane.

Victims' families and critics say those on trial are not responsible for decisions taken at a higher level on the night of the incident. They say Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander was responsible because he did not “clear the airspace.”

As authorities restricted internet access in Esfahan and other cities, videos on social media showed groups of protesters shouting, “Death to the dictator”, and slogans against Iran’s intervention in Syria, demanding attention to the country’s internal problems.

Anti-riot police remained in the streets in large numbers, trying to end the protests that began two weeks ago by farmers from regions around the city, demanding water for irrigating their parched fields.

An Iranian human rights group said its preliminary information indicates authorities have arrested 120 people.

Security forces used tear gas, batons, and shotguns firing “bird shots” at demonstrators that inflicted serious injuries. Images and reports from local sources show that three people might have been killed, but a final toll has not been confirmed by the government or human rights activists monitoring the situation.

Mohammad-Reza Mir-Heidari, Esfahan’s police chief confirmed that citizens were injured but he also insisted that security forces were also hurt by stone-throwing protesters. He threatened “to deal” with protesters.

A statement issued by the office of EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, “The European Union condemns this execution in the strongest terms.”

Arman Abdolali was sentenced to death for the killing of his girlfriend Ghazale Shaker in 2014, but his execution had been postponed on several occasions.

The EU has in the past condemned the execution of other juvenile offenders in Iran and also the hanging of Rouhollah Zam, a dissident journalist who was abducted by Iranian intelligence in 2019 and hanged last year.

The statements went on to say that the EU “recalls yet again that death sentences for crimes committed by persons below the age of 18 are contrary to international obligations under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Human rights organizations and United Nations experts have repeatedly called on Iran to end executions, specially those of juvenile offenders. For many years Iran has had the second highest rate of carrying out the death penalty in the world, after China.

Arman Abdolali, who was 25 at the time of his execution was sentenced to death for the killing of Ghazale Shaker in 2014, but his execution had been postponed on several occasions.

Human rights organizations had repeatedly appealed for the death sentence to be cancelled because of Abdolali’s age at the time of the crime, but Iran’s Sharia-based law recognizes adulthood to be when a person turns adolescent.

Also, according to Islamic law the family of the victim has the last say in carrying out the sentence. If the family forgives the offender, the death penalty cannot be carried out. In this case Shaker’s family did not agree to pardoning Abdolali.

The Iran Human Rights Organization reported earlier this year that the Islamic Republic is the only government in the world that continues to execute people who committed a murder before the age of 18.

Germany's human rights commissioner, Baerbel Kofler, had also appealed to Iran to cancel the execution calling it "unacceptable breach of international law."

Figures published by Iran Statistical Center (ISC) relating to the first three months of the Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 20 2021), are the highest for child marriages recorded in a single quarter.

The Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) in a detailed article Monday said that the numbers published by ISC reflected only registered marriages and not unregistered ones, which are common in rural areas.

Over 54,500 teenage girls above 14 also were officially married. Marriages of boys under 18 − considered ‘underage’ internationally − were far fewer, with only six cases registered for boys under 15 and 6,500 for males between 15-19.

For years the issue of underage marriage has been debated in Iran, with many clerics and religious politicians defending marriages of girls under 15. Proposed legislation to forbid marriage in for girls under 14 has been pursued unsuccessfully even in relatively more reform-minded parliaments.

Fathers are required in law to agree to the marriage of daughters younger than 13, while a religious court must also certify that the girl is ready physically and mentally, and that she agrees to the marriage. ISNA claimed that judges often seek only the father’s consent and disregard the other requirements.

One major reason for the rise in underage marriages is the current economic crisis where poor families struggling to take care of children see early marriage as a better option. There is a government cash grant of around $400 for marrying couples, which acts as an additional incentive.

There are also many reports from officials and in the media of parents receive money for agreeing to wed underage girls, often to far older men. The vice-president responsible for women’s affairs, Ansiyeh Khazali, who does not oppose all underage marriage, recently said that money played a big role.

The wide gender imbalance − with 9,750 under-14 girls marrying as against only six boys under 15 and 6,500 males aged 15-19 − in the SCI figures suggests many child brides went to men in at least their 20s.

Reports in Iranian media have indicated that there are growing cases of “child divorce” and children giving birth. ISC figures from the same three-month period showed 293 babies born to girls under 15, with two ten-year-old and seven 11-year-old mothers. In total, 747 babies were born to mothers aged 10-14 in the first six months of the year.

Although child marriage in Iran is less common than in Africa and some parts of Asia, human rights groups have criticized the practice and highlighted individual cases.