Iran to Execute Stone-throwing Demonstrator
THE TELEGRAPH: A student who was arrested for throwing a stone during pro-democracy demonstrations is to be executed, Iran said yesterday.

Mohammad-Amin Valian, a 20-year-old Islamic studies student, was arrested on the basis of a photograph taken at a mass demonstration against the rigged presidential election last year. He was among six people convicted of the Islamic crime of moharebeh, or waging war against God.

Their sentences were announced in an apparent attempt to forestall fresh demonstrations to coincide with yesterday's annual festival of fire.

Mr Valian's plight has become a rallying point for opponents of the regime and yesterday's announcement is the latest blow to the movement. The combination of his young age and the flimsy nature of his offence has spurred condemnation of the severity of the sentence.

Clashes were reported last night as Iranians celebrated Charshanbe Soori, a pre-Islamic bonfire night, in defiance of warnings of severe retaliation from the regime. >>> Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Islam: ‘The Religion of Love, Mercy, and Compassion’
Sweet soul! Ayatollah Khatami delivering Friday prayers in Tehran. Photo: TimesOnline
TIMES ONLINE: A hardline cleric seen as a mouthpiece of the Iranian regime today demanded that opposition demonstrators be punished “without mercy”.

Even as Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami delivered his uncompromising message at Tehran’s Friday prayers, foreign ministers of the world’s leading industrialised nations issued a statement deploring the regime’s violent crackdown on the protestors and demanded it “stop immediately”.

Mr Khatami’s televised sermon came at the end of a week in which the regime has brutally suppressed all streets protests and rounded up hundreds of opponents for daring to question President Ahmadinejad’s re-election. It conveyed the unmistakable message that no dissent would be tolerated, and that the crackdown would, if anything, intensify.

“I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson,” Mr Khatami told worshippers at Tehran university.

He said the judiciary should treat the leading “rioters” as “mohareb” - people who wage war against God. “Based on Islamic law, whoever confronts the Islamic state ... should be convicted as mohareb,” he said. “They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely" to deter others. Hardliner says Iran protesters should be punished 'without mercy' >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, June 26, 2009