An Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran has sentenced a 22-year-old protester to death on charges of "corruption on Earth" as the country's judiciary continues to hand out harsh sentences to those associated with the unrest that has followed the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody over how she was wearing a head scarf.
HAALVSH, a group that monitors rights violations in Iran's Baluchistan region, said in a report that Mansur Dehmardeh was arrested on October 3 in connection with protests in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan sparked by Amini's death and the alleged rape of a 15-year-old protester by a local police commander.
The group says Dehmardeh, who is physically disabled, told the judge in court that he only threw three stones during the demonstrations and set fire to a tire. He says he was tortured -- including having his nose broken and teeth knocked out -- for 10 days while being held in a Zahedan Intelligence Department detention center.
Dehmardeh is currently being held in Zahedan Central Prison and prison authorities have prevented him from phoning or meeting with family members.
Convictions on charges such as "corruption on Earth" and "waging war against God" are punishable by death according to Islamic Shari'a law and have been used by Iran's judiciary to help the government quell the nationwide protests.
Dehmardeh is among the scores of people arrested by security forces in a brutal crackdown following anti-government protests in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchistan Province, which is home to the country's Baluch minority.
The Baluch Activists Campaign reported that, in recent days, hundreds of Baluchi citizens have been arrested in Zahedan. Many of them did not have identification documents and reportedly were forcibly deported from the country to Afghanistan.
Forced deportation in Iran is usually applied to foreign nationals, mainly Afghan citizens, who enter Iran without obtaining a visa and without permission.
However, thousands of undocumented Iranians live in different cities of Sistan-Baluchistan Province. Because they lack national identity papers, they are deprived of many basic rights.
Some internal sources estimate this number to be more than 100,000 people.