Iranian shopkeeper faces possible hanging, despite Trump warning Iran of consequences

An Iranian shopkeeper is facing a possible hanging, despite President Trump warning Iran of consequences if Iran hanged people detained during the protests.Erfan Soltani, 26, was set to be executed Wednesday, accused by the Iranian government of participating in the protests against the regime, according to a human rights group Hengaw, which is in contact with his family, CBS News reported.
Hengaw representative Awyar Shekhi told the news outlet Tuesday that the Iranian government “said that he was arrested because of the protest, but we don’t know if he actually participated in the protest, because there is absolutely no information about that or evidence.”
Soltani is a clothing seller whose family lives near Tehran, according to Shekhi, who added that “his family has said he was not a political activist, but he was a dissident of the government.”
Shekhi said that Soltani was arrested Jan. 9 and that he had been “deprived from all of his basic rights to contact his family, to have a lawyer.”
Four days later, “the family got information that their son has received [a death] sentence, and without declaring what was the charges [or] when the trial took place.”
While Soltani’s family was not told how his planned execution would be carried out, the most common method in Iran is hanging, according to Hengaw.
Shekhi said that Soltani’s sister is a lawyer and has been pursuing all available legal avenues to defend him, “but the authorities have told [her] there’s no case to review and we are not allowing that.”
He also explained that the family was informed they would be allowed to have a final meeting with Soltani, which is normally reserved for the families of those being executed. Hengaw said it had no confirmation that the meeting had occurred, but a source close to the family told the group that some of Soltani’s relatives had been heading to the massive Ghezel Hesar Prison, near Tehran, late Tuesday night.
“If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly,” Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said Wednesday in a video aired on state television, of a discussion he had with other judiciary officials about handling the cases of detained protesters. “If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn’t have the same effect.”
Trump told CBS News on Tuesday that the U.S. would act if the Iranian regime started hanging protesters.
When asked about what that action would be, Trump said, “Well — let’s define it in Venezuela. Let’s define it with [ISIS leader] al-Baghdadi. He was wiped out. Let’s define it with [Iranian military commander] Soleimani. And let’s define it in Iran,” where the U.S. wiped out the regime’s nuclear threat “in a period of about 15 minutes.”
Trump has reportedly been briefed on options – including military strikes – to support the protesters who have for weeks now taken to the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in the country to oppose the Iranian regime government. The protests were sparked when the Iranian currency plummeted.
“We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen,” Trump also said. “If they want to have protests, that’s one thing. When they start killing thousands of people, and now you’re telling me about hanging? We’ll see how that works out for them.”
In addition, he said U.S. will “take very strong action” if Iran hangs protesters.

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