Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s niece Farideh Moradkhani jailed for 3 years over protests

A niece of Iran’s supreme leader has been jailed for three years for supporting protests against the regime, which began three months ago.

Farideh Moradkhani was arrested after calling on the international community to isolate the regime overseen by her uncle, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

She is one of a number of his relatives to oppose his rule. Last week, her mother, Badri Hosseini Khamenei, called on the armed forces to join the opposition to end her brother’s sway “before it is too late”.

Moradkhani’s lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, tweeted that her 15-year sentence for her statements had been reduced to three years on appeal.

She was arrested on November 23 and has been in prison since. The speed of her trial, conviction and appeal is another sign of the hard line the regime has taken with the protests, which began with the death in custody on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, 22. She had been arrested in Tehran by the morality police for not wearing her hijab properly. The authorities claim she died of natural causes, but her family say she had been beaten.

On Monday the regime carried out its second execution of a convicted protester. Iran hanged a man in public convicted of killing two members of security forces, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

“Majid Reza Rahnavard was hanged in public in [the holy Shi’ite city of] Mashahd this morning ... he was sentenced to death for ‘waging war against God’ after stabbing to death two members of security forces,” Mizan said.

The second execution linked to anti-government protests in less than a week has been widely condemned by the United States and its allies.

Activists on social media roundly criticised the execution of the 23-year-old Rahnavard as “a criminal act” by the clerical establishment to deter dissent.

Iran’s state media aired video of a man, whom they identified as Rahnavard, stabbing another man who fell against a parked motorcycle and then stabbing another person immediately after.

Mizan said Rahnavard was arrested when trying to flee the country 23 days ago. It added that his sentence was upheld by a higher court.

This execution follows Iran’s hanging of another young man, Mohsen Shekari, on Thursday.

Shekari, 23, was arrested on September 25 and sentenced to death within six weeks.

The authorities released a video of his “public confession” to having struck a member of the baseej, a paramilitary police force, with a machete. Observers noticed a bruise on one of his cheeks.

At least eleven other protesters have been sentenced to death, some for murder. President Raisi made it clear there would be no let-up in a speech this weekend: “The identification, trial and punishment of the perpetrators of the martyrdom [killing] of security forces will be pursued with determination.”