A 26-year-old shopkeeper is due to be executed by Iran’s leadership on Wednesday, his family said, even as President Donald Trump promised “very strong action” if any protesters were hanged.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Erfan Soltani was arrested last week at his home in Fardis, west of Tehran, for allegedly taking part in the protests that have swept the country and reportedly left thousands killed in a crackdown by authorities, according to rights groups.
He is believed to be the first person sentenced to death in connection with the protests.
One of his relatives told BBC Persian that an Iranian court had issued a death sentence “in an extremely rapid process, within just two days”. He has been denied access to legal counsel, according to Hengaw, an Iranian Kurdish rights group.
Read more: What’s Happening in Iran Right Now, Explained
A cousin of Soltani, who identified herself as Somayeh, issued a plea to Trump as his execution day neared.
“Our demand now is that Trump truly stand behind the words he said, because the Iranian people came to the streets based on those statements,” she told CNN. “An unarmed population trusted these words and is now under gunfire. I beg you, please do not let Erfan be executed. Please.”
President Trump has ramped up his threats against Iran’s leadership in recent days as the death toll from the crackdown against protests has risen sharply, and specifically warned of action should it start to execute protesters.
“If they hang them, you’re going to see some things,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday, he gave his strongest indication yet that the U.S. would intervene in the country to support protesters.
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
Soltani’s impending sentence comes as Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, has vowed to fast-track the “trial and punishment” of detainees alleged to have taken part in the protests spanning all of the country’s 31 provinces. During a visit to prison in Tehran that was broadcast on state television, Mohseni-Ejei said that the authorities must “work quickly.”
According to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Fars news agency’s Telegram, he also expressed a desire for the trials to be held “in public.”
Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, reportedly doubled down on the push for quicker trials on Wednesday, urging prosecutors to “decisively go after these people.”
The comments from Iranian officials come amid mounting concern over possible executions that could be carried out on those arrested. The Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) on Wednesday reported the detention of 18,434 individuals, citing that “97 cases of forced confessions have been broadcast.”
The estimated death toll resulting from the crackdown on protests has risen sharply since last week. According to the HRANA, “the deaths of 2,403 protesters have been confirmed.” However, an informal, expatriate group of academics and professionals told TIME on Sunday that, per their calculations, protester deaths could have reached 6,000 through Saturday.
TIME has been unable to independently verify these figures.
The protests in Iran, which started on Dec. 28 and were initially in response to the declining economic landscape, have grown exponentially, with demonstrators now calling for an end to the authoritarian regime.
Amid the internet blackout that the Iranian authorities enforced last Thursday, on-the-ground reports remain somewhat limited, but the glimpses the world has seen of Iran have prompted mass concern.
Trump has spent the past few days weighing military options, but has so far given little indication of what his response might look like. When asked what an endgame of an operation against Iran would look like, Trump told CBS: “The endgame is to win.” After referencing the recent U.S. operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture and detainment of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump also mentioned the U.S. military operation that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the fugitive leader of ISIS, in 2019. In a pointed warning to Iran, Trump then looked back on last year’s conflict that saw the U.S. launch air strikes on three nuclear facilities inside Iran after joining Israel’s mission to strangle Tehran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon. “It’s not going to work out good [for Iran],” the President concluded.
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