An Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran has sentenced an accused protester to death on charges of apostasy and insulting the Koran, the activist HRANA news agency reports.
The defendant, Javad Ruhi, 35, was reportedly arrested for participating in ongoing nationwide protests in the northern Iranian city of Nowshahr on December 11.
The Mazandaran Province Judicial Department's communications arm said Ruhi was also accused of "burning and destroying public property" and "inciting citizens to create insecurity and collusion to commit a crime against the security of the country."
Mohammad Sadegh Akbari, the top justice official in Mazandaran Province, said Ruhi did not retain a lawyer and a public defender was appointed for him by the court.
But civil activists and sources close to Ruhi's family deny that claim and say he was not allowed to have a lawyer during the interrogation process.
HRANA quoted a source close to Ruhi’s family as saying his confession was "made under duress."
Iranian authorities are accused by many former inmates of torture and otherwise forcibly extracting false confessions.
The source close to Ruhi's family said the only documents in the case that led to the death sentence were forced confessions.
The court also referred to a video in which a person sets fire to the Koran.
But the source said that "in the video, the face of the person who sets fire to the book is not clear, but the court identified it as Javad Ruhi."
The same court recently sentenced to death two teenagers also arrested during demonstrations, Mehdi Mohammadifard and Arshia Takdastan, for allegedly helping organize and lead a September 21 rally in the northern Iranian city of Nowshahr.
Authorities said Mohammadifard's and Takdastan's actions constituted "corruption on Earth," a charge often leveled in cases allegedly involving espionage or attempts to overthrow the government and which the courts have taken to using in recent months against protesters angered over student Mahsa Amini's death in custody over an alleged dress-code violation in September.
Iranians have flooded the streets across the country in protest since Amini's death, with women and even schoolgirls putting up unprecedented shows of defiance in what appears to be the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.
A brutal government crackdown on public demonstrators and dissent has seen several thousand people arrested, including journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others voicing opposition to the government.
Some lawmakers have demanded an even harsher response, calling for heavy penalties, including death sentences, for protesters.
Four convicted protesters have already been executed -- including two over the weekend -- while two others, Mohammad Ghobadlou and Mohammad Broghani, had their sentences upheld by the country's Supreme Court.
The regime has blamed Western governments for the unrest.
Human rights groups say the crackdown has left nearly 500 people dead and hundreds more injured, in addition to the arrests.
Rights groups have also expressed concern at the possibility of a death sentence being handed down against Iranian-German dual national Jamshid Sharmahd.