DEATH THREAT

Iran’s Chief Justice: Protesters May Face the Death Penalty

Ayatollah emerges to blame unnamed “enemies” for “creating problems.”

In an ominous turn of events in Tehran, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Court warned Tuesday that arrested protesters could face the death penalty when their cases come to trial. According to the state-affiliated Tasnim news agency, chief justice Mousa Ghazanfarabadi is quoted as threatening “Obviously one of their charges can be Moharebeh”—or waging war against God, which is a death-penalty offense in Iran. More than 450 people have reportedly been taken into custody during six days of unrest, as tens of thousands have taken to the streets in nationwide demonstrations against poor economic conditions and frustration with the Islamic government. Meanwhile, state TV reported early Tuesday that an 11-year-old boy and a Revolutionary Guardsman were among the nine killed overnight. The death toll rose to 21 from the clashes. In his first comments since the protests erupted, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused unnamed foreign enemies of meddling in Iran’s affairs, using money, weapons, politics and intelligence apparatuses “to create problems for the Islamic system,” according to a post on his website.