UAE: The public on Monday watched the hanging from a construction crane of a second prisoner, convicted of crimes committed during the country's sweeping anti-Semitism protests.

Less than a month later, Majidreza Rahnavard was stabbed to death by two paramilitary personnel allegedly because he was upset about security forces shooting protesters.

This new development emphasizes how quickly death sentences for those arrested during the protests are being carried out, which the government is trying to reduce.

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Activists warn that at least a dozen people have already been sentenced to death in the secret trials. At least 488 people have been killed since the demonstrations began in mid-September, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that monitors the protests. Authorities have detained another 18,200 people.

A collage of images published by Iran's Mizan news agency, which is part of the country's judiciary, showed Rahnvard hanging from a crane with his hands and feet bound and a black bag covering his head.

Masked members of security forces stand guard in front of metal and concrete barriers as crowds of people gather in the Iranian city of Mashhad early Monday.

In Mashhad on 17 November, Mizan claimed that Rahnavarad had fatally stabbed two members of the security forces, while wounding four others.

On camera, a man was seen chasing another man around a street corner and stabbing him after the other man tripped and fell against a parked motorcycle. Another immediately showed the same man stabbing another. The assailant, identified by state TV as Rahnavarad, then fled.

According to Mizan's report, the deceased were "students" Basij, paramilitary volunteers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In many cases, protesters have retaliated when Basij (pronounced "BA-SEEJ") deployed in major cities attacked and detained them.

Following Rahnvard's execution, a heavily edited state television report featuring him in court was broadcast. He claims in the video that he started hating Basis after watching videos of police beating and killing protesters posted on social media.

Rahnvard was accused in the Mizan report of attempting to flee his country of arrest.

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The Shia holy city of Mashhad is located approximately 460 miles (or 740 kilometers) east of Tehran, the capital of Iran. Strikes, shop closures and demonstrations have reportedly taken place amid the unrest that began after the custodial death on 16 September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by Iran's morality police.

According to Mizan, the revolutionary court in Mashhad found Rahnavar guilty. The tribunals have drawn criticism from around the world for not allowing those people to choose their own lawyers or even to see the evidence against them.

Rahnvard was found guilty of "moharbeh", which is Persian for "waging war against God". Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, this charge has been made against others and is punishable by death.

Qur'anic verse "Indeed, those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and try to bring corruption on earth, their retribution is that they will be killed or crucified, or their hands and feet shall be cut off from opposite sides, or banished from the land" displayed on a banner depicting pictures of their execution.

Although Iran used the same method of execution to reduce unrest following the disputed 2009 presidential election and subsequent protests, public executions using a crane have become rare in recent years.

Usually, people who have been condemned are still alive when the crane lifts them off their feet. They are hanging from a rope and trying to breathe before passing out or breaking their necks.

Suppliers of cranes to Iran had previously come under pressure from activists who warned the equipment could be used for executions.

EU foreign ministers expressed shock at the recent executions from Brussels. The bloc's top diplomat said on Monday new sanctions had been approved against Iran for its crackdown on protesters as well as for giving Russia drones to use in its conflict with Ukraine.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claimed he had "not an easy conversation" with Iran's foreign minister about Tehran's response to the protests and recent executions.

"We are going to approve a very tough package of sanctions," Borrell told reporters as he arrived to chair the ministerial meeting in Brussels. Finland's foreign minister said he also spoke with his Iranian counterpart.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the execution as "a blatant attempt at intimidation" of Iranians.

As soon as Baerbock arrived at the meeting in Brussels, she declared, "We are making clear that we stand beside innocent people in Iran." "A system that treats its citizens in this manner cannot expect to continue to have relations with the European Union that are even remotely normal."

One of the most brutal countries in the world, Iran typically hangs its prisoners to death. On Thursday, it executed the first prisoner taken during protests. According to the Oslo-based organisation Iran Human Rights, it has executed over 500 prisoners so far this year, the most in the previous five years.

The group warned on Monday that "we will be facing even more horrific crimes like the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980s" in the absence of "serious measures to deter the Islamic Republic from executing protesters." That refers to the 1988 executions, which activists estimate may have killed as many as 5,000 prisoners and were overseen in part by Iran's current hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.

The execution of one prisoner should be "completed "in the shortest possible time" and his death sentence should be carried out in public as "a heart-warming gesture towards the security forces," according to a document obtained by Amnesty International.

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In addition to the unrest, Iran is experiencing a severe economic crisis that has caused the rial, the country's currency, to reach new lows against the dollar.