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By Nasser Karimi

January 29, 2010

Source: Associted Press (AP)/Detroit Free Press

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran executed two men Thursday accused of involvement in an armed anti-government group, as the public prosecutor announced that new death sentences have been issued against opposition activists involved in protests over June’s disputed presidential election.

The announcements marked an escalation by the courts enforcing the clerical leadership’s heavy, monthslong crackdown aimed at crushing opposition. The prosecutor also said a new group of protesters and others would soon be brought to trial.

The two men, who were hanged before dawn Thursday, had been arrested before the election and did not appear to be connected to the postelection protests.

But they were put before the same mass trial as opposition leaders and activists arrested amid the crackdown, and government media Thursday depicted the two as part of the protest movement, a sign of how the government has used the unrest as an opportunity to pursue other enemies.

The media’s depiction of the executions might be intended to intimidate opposition ahead of new street demonstrations expected in February.

The two men who were executed, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were convicted by a Revolutionary Court of belonging to “counterrevolutionary and monarchist groups,” plotting to overthrow “the Islamic establishment” and planning assassinations and bombings, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, the prosecutor, told government television.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the executions represent a new low in Iran’s crackdown on peaceful dissent.