Iran sentences blinded protester to death, NGOs say

Rights groups said an Iranian court has sentenced Ali Zarei, a 27-year-old man blinded in one eye during Iran’s 2022 protests, to death after he returned from Germany.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency and the Center for Human Rights in Iran said Zarei was convicted last month on the capital charge of “corruption on earth” and sentenced to hang.

The Frankfurt-based International Society for Human Rights said Zarei had gone to Germany for medical treatment after being fired on during the crackdown on the “Woman. Life. Freedom.” movement that followed the death of Mahsa Amini. It said he lost his right eye and later returned to Iran “for personal reasons”, without giving further details.

It remains unclear why Zarei returned to Iran earlier this year. Rights groups said he was arrested immediately after his return.

Zarei had appeared at a February rally in Munich hosted by Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. At the rally, Zarei introduced himself as a survivor of eye injuries from Iran’s 2022 uprising and spoke in favour of Pahlavi.

Pahlavi’s office said on X that Zarei, held in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran, had been sentenced to death on “baseless charges”.

Rights groups said Iran has in recent months executed 29 people convicted in connection with protests this January, as well as two people over the 2022 Mahsa Amini demonstrations.