Iran has sentenced to death three more protesters who were arrested after the country's disputed presidential election in June. The verdicts came despite a widespread international protest over the death penalty given last week to a man identified as Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani, a member of a group seeking to reinstate the country's monarchy.
The sentences were said to be for involvement in the countrywide protests that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election as president in polls many Iranians said were rigged. The authorities have rejected the charges and portrayed the protests as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic republic.
Announcing the latest sentences through the ISNA news agency, Zahed Bashiri Rad, a spokesman for the justice ministry, said: "Three people who were accused [for their role] in the post-election incidents have been sentenced to death."
The identities of the three protesters were not revealed. Instead Bashiri Rad supplied only the initials of those condemned. "MZ and AP were convicted for ties with the Kingdom Assembly of Iran" – an organisation that seeks to bring back the Shah – while NA was convicted for ties with the People's Mujahideen, an exiled opposition group. It is unclear whether Zamani is the "MZ" mentioned by ISNA.
The four prisoners who have been sentenced in the last week are among more than 4,000 Iranians arrested for their part in the protests that followed the disputed election, many of whom have been accused of trying to overthrow the Islamic republic. Most of those detained have been released, but about 200 remain behind bars and around 110 have so far been put on trial.
Last week Amnesty International called on Iran to lift the death penalty on Zamani, 37, after he was sentenced by the court, criticising his prosecution as a "show trial" and a "mockery of justice".
Bashiri Rad said the death sentences were "not final and they can still be appealed to the supreme court".