Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Tehran has executed two people arrested during the riots that erupted following presidential elections in June 2009. The Iranian ISNA news agency reported today, that they belonged to a group of 11 men sentenced to death in recent weeks. Against them charges of being "enemies of God", belonging to militant armed groups and attempting to overthrow the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
Sources inside the country stress that those of today are the first death sentences carried out against anti-government protesters. Last June, millions of people took to the streets to protest against the re-election of conservative candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and request a new vote.
It was the biggest demonstrations since the Islamic revolution of 1979. During the fighting in the streets of Tehran at least 30 people were killed, thousands arrested, and even today, some 200 activists are still detained in prisons in the country.
Iranian ISNA news agency said the two men were executed today at dawn. They are Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour. However, there is, so far, no independent confirmation of the executions.
Previously, opposition groups had reported that the death of Zamani in October last year. One of the two men was executed for alleged links with the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, a monarchist group banned by the regime of the ayatollahs. The second was sentenced to death because he belongs to the dissident movement People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).