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Iran’s Supreme Court has ordered the retrial of a third man allegedly sentenced to death over protests across the country, the judiciary said on Saturday.
The Islamic Republic has been rocked by protests since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in custody after being arrested in Tehran on Sept. 16 for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.
Iranian officials said hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, were killed in the unrest and thousands arrested.
Foreign human rights groups reported that Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh had been sentenced to death for removing highway railings and setting fire to rubbish bins and tires.
On Saturday, the justice department’s Mizan Online news site said the 26-year-old had been retried, without specifying the original sentence.
“The Supreme Court upheld the appeal against the decision taken by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court,” a statement said, adding that Noor Mohammad-Zadeh’s case had been referred to another court for retrial.
Nourmohammad-Zadeh was sentenced to death after being found guilty of “moharebeh,” meaning “hostility against Allah,” his lawyer, Hamed Ahmad, told ILNA news agency on December 21.
“I sincerely hope that the Supreme Court will annul my client’s death sentence,” the lawyer added, citing new evidence in the case.
Nourmohammad-Zadeh is the third death row inmate to be allowed a retrial after Kurdish rapper Saman Seydi, also known as Saman Yasin, and Mahan Sadrat.
In early December, Iran executed two people in connection with the protests.
Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife and was publicly hanged on 12 December.
Four days earlier, Mohsen Shekari, also 23, had been executed for wounding a member of the security forces.
The judiciary said nine others had been sentenced to death, while activists said dozens of protesters this week faced charges that could carry the death penalty.
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