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Hundreds of Iranian Protesters Sentenced to Death in Online Trials
(Israel Hayom) Danny Zaken - In the past two weeks alone, hundreds of demonstrators arrested during last month's protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been sentenced to death in expedited proceedings. Most of these trials were conducted online, in rapid fashion, with almost no opportunity for the accused to respond or mount a defense. A Tehran resident involved in documenting the protests told Israel Hayom that, according to figures in his possession, the families of more than 3,000 detainees received notices that their relatives had died. Many were required to pay ransom in order to retrieve the bodies. He said, "This is a directive from above as part of a policy of terror aimed at crushing the protest movement, while circumventing promises made to the Americans that there would be no executions." Meanwhile, crude oil exports from Iran's Persian Gulf terminals fell to 1.39 million barrels per day in January, compared to 1.8 million barrels per day in the same month last year. The difficulty in marketing its oil has forced Tehran to offer discounts of 20-30% below the global benchmark price per barrel. A U.S. official said, "It is quite astonishing that despite Iran's economic dead end, it continues to haggle over the nuclear issue and refuses to discuss other matters as though it still holds countless bargaining chips. It has almost none, aside from the military threat to its neighbors and to American interests in the region. This rigidity in negotiations leads to the assessment that Iran's leadership is operating on a fundamentally flawed appraisal bordering on illusion."