US denounces executions in Iran in ‘strongest terms’

By Rabia Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US on Monday denounced the executions in Iran, saying it “underscored how much Iranian leadership actually fears its own people.”

“We denounce this draconian treatment in the strongest terms,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

“These harsh sentences, and now the first public execution at least, are meant to intimidate Iran's people, they're meant to suppress dissent and they simply just underscore how much the Iranian leadership actually fears its own people," Price said.

Iran on Monday executed the second person convicted over the killing of two security personnel in the northeastern city of Mashhad in November amid months-long countrywide protests.

Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged in public in his hometown Mashhad in the wee hours of Monday on charges of “moharebeh” (waging war against God), judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency said.