Iran sentences protester to death, drawing call from rights group for world to impose "consequences"

Iran has sentenced a person to death for taking part in the protests that have engulfed the country since mid-September, the judiciary's news agency said on Monday. The unnamed person was charged with starting a fire at a government building, among other things.

"The international community must strongly warn the Islamic Republic of the consequences of executing protesters," the director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said in a statement on Monday. "Summoning their ambassadors and implementing stronger effective human rights action against state officials are amongst the consequences European countries must consider."

Iran Human Rights said that at least 20 other protesters were currently facing charges punishable by death in the country, and that the Iranian authorities could be planning to carry out a wave of hasty executions. Five other protesters were also sentenced to between five and ten years in prison for participating in the demonstrations, which the Iranian regime refers to as "riots."