Iran sentences pregnant woman to death for burning Khomeini's portrait

Agencies | Tehran                                 

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Iran has sentenced a pregnant woman in her early 20s to death for allegedly setting fire to a portrait of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, amid protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of morality police.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has called for urgent action to save her. The woman, an ethnic Iranian-Kurdish woman, is being held in Urmia Central Prison, reported IranWire.

Iranian police arrested Shahla Abdi in mid-October during mass protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16. The report, quoting a female inmate in Urmia Central, said Abdi had been there with them for nearly a month and was moved to Tabriz Prison three weeks ago. IranWire suggests she could be in a detention centre run by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.

"When I saw this woman, she looked very young but weak and abused, and I realised that she was four months pregnant," the inmate told IranWire. Abdi, reportedly, was in solitary confinement in Urmia Central Prison.

Earlier this month, Iran hanged two men, one of them a karate champion with several national titles, in its attempts to stamp out demonstrations, which have slowed considerably, since it began carrying out executions within weeks of arrests.

At least 517 protesters have been killed in Iran, and more than 19,200 people arrested since the wave of Amini protests first swept the country in mid-September