Iran Condemns Protesters to Death

Three defendants have been sentenced to death in Iran’s mass trial of opposition figures accused of stirring up unrest after the country’s June 12 election. More than 100 prominent activists are being tried for crimes—from rioting to planning a “soft overthrow” of the Iranian government—related to post-election street protests, which were triggered by allegations of fraud. These are the first death sentences since the trial began in August; all were convicted of ties to opposition groups, and the defendants’ names were not released. Amnesty International says one of them is Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani, 37, who confessed to meeting an American spy named Frank in Iraqi Kurdistan and giving him information on Tehran and student movements in exchange for money and a phone. Rights groups say these confessions are coerced and the proceedings are a show trial.