An Iranian mother of two has been condemned to death by hanging after authorities accused her over a store fire she was reportedly only filming during anti-regime unrest in January, according to a new report.
Leila Abolhasani, 43, was among the estimated 50,000 people detained during protests that erupted across Iran at the start of the year. She was sentenced on a charge of “Moharebeh,” meaning “enmity against God,” IranWire reported.
Abolhasani, who has two teenage children, was arrested Jan. 8 in Shahin Shahr, a satellite city in Iran, after taking photos of a fire at an Ofogh Koorosh grocery store, a source told the outlet.
Iran’s Judiciary — an authoritarian legal system rooted in Sharia law and controlled by the Supreme Leader — alleged that Abolhasani had participated in setting the store ablaze, an accusation that can carry the death penalty, according to IranWire’s source.
Her family has rejected the claim that she had any role in starting the fire, insisting she merely recorded the blaze on her phone, NewsNation reported.
No public details have emerged about what evidence the court cited to connect her to the fire, how the trial was conducted or what legal defense she received.
Since her arrest, Abolhasani has been held at Dowlatabad Prison in the city of Isfahan.
In late May, Vahid Hemmatnejad, the presiding judge of Branch 5 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court, sentenced Abolhasani to death.
She was ordered to be executed by hanging.
The mother appealed the verdict and her case was moved to the Supreme Court for review, according to IranWire.
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The Supreme Court is reportedly examining Abolhasani’s appeal.
An Iranian refugee who spoke to NewsNation said the planned execution of Abolhasani acts as another warning by the regime to citizens that if they oppose their leadership, they could be killed.
“She (Abolhasani) was arrested for documenting what was happening and was sentenced to death,” the refugee told the outlet.
“Her work could have been very effective in showing the world how brutal and savage the regime is, and they do not want the world to see the truth,” the refugee added.
“That is why they are trying to execute her. They want her case to serve as a lesson to anyone who tries to speak the truth about the regime.”
The refugee asserted that the regime wants to “create fear among the people so that anyone who might consider revealing the truth will be too afraid to do so.”
“They want people to remain silent and to keep the truth hidden forever.”
During the January protests, around 50,000 people, including 250 children, were killed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a source told NewsNation.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates some 50,000 people were arrested during the demonstrations.
Earlier this month, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said that Iran had executed at least 56 people on national security-related charges since March 19, which included 27 cases linked to the protests in January.
The human rights chief said that executions and death sentences had increased since March and more than 100 other people are facing similar charges which could result in being sentenced to death.
“The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and irreconcilable with human dignity,” Türk said. “Such punishment has no place in our world.”
