Mohsen Shekari was the first protester executed by the Iranian state during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, convicted of moharebeh for blocking Sattar Khan Boulevard and allegedly injuring a Basij member.
He was arrested on 25 September 2022, tried in a Tehran Revolutionary Court, and sentenced to death in early November. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court within weeks. His family received the body for burial after the execution; no public funeral was permitted.
Shekari's execution was the regime drawing a line in front of the protest movement. The speed of it, weeks not years, was the message. After his hanging, four more Mahsa-era executions followed within months. Iran International was among the early outlets to publish the rushed trial timeline.
He is the first name in a list that the regime kept extending. Naming the first execution makes the rest of the list legible.
What it is
Mohsen Shekari (محسن شکاری) was a 23-year-old cafe worker executed by hanging on 8 December 2022, the first person put to death by the Islamic Republic during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. He had been arrested in late September 2022 and convicted of moharebeh (waging war against God) for allegedly blocking a Tehran street and wounding a Basij member with a machete during a protest. Amnesty International, the UN Office for Human Rights, and Iran Human Rights all documented that his trial lasted under two months, that he was denied an independent lawyer, and that the conviction relied on a televised confession bearing visible signs of coercion.
Sources
- Amnesty International, first Mahsa execution (December 2022)
- OHCHR, UN experts on Shekari execution (December 2022)
- Iran Human Rights, Mohsen Shekari case (December 2022)
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