Iran court upholds death sentence for protester, 25-year term for daughter

Every authoritarian regime is terrified of its people. So, they make sure the people are also terrified of them. Excessive punishments for the most minor "offence" really helps control how many people are willing to take a stand. And as long as there's not many taking a stand they remain in control.

...the "crime" is of killing a law enforcement official, though? I'm not suggesting that they are guilty, or that death would be a reasonable penalty for whatever they are alleged to have done. But it's literally not executing for protest

That’s really sad I hope it gets better very soon

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Didn’t Elon send or activated bunch of starlinks or have those also been confiscated? Hope this is over soon 🙏 

Same man. And yet there are ppl on Listnook who sympathize w the regime bc they hate America and Israel more. Bunch of f****** ollaghs.

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People are fearful but hopeful. I think some of that hope is dissipating unfortunately

They can both be. On a spectrum, he's one of the most authoritarian US presidents there's ever been.

The fact that we haven’t hit full autocracy doesn’t mean we aren’t on the downward slide to that happening. See also: executing Americans in the streets, finding ways to tamper with the midterm elections through voter suppression and redistricting, and covering every available White House surface in gold. Don’t be willfully ignorant.

I don't think anyone is claiming he *currently* is a dictator. I think people are claiming he's trying to *become* one, and has made better headway than predicted. Transition from democracy to dictatorships doesn't happen overnight. Historically it has occurred by systematic weakening of democracy over time. Trump has repeatedly made power grabs; they've been resisted. Many of those power grabs have been successful and have revealed weaknesses in our democracies. Still others have been foiled. If they hadn't been foiled, he would have been very close to dictatorship. What if January 6th had been successful, and Trump had overturned the results of a democratic election? He would have been a dictator. Fortunately I think Trump is too old and infirm to successfully finish this as a dictator. However, he has paved the way for future dictators by pushing the boundaries of what an American president can get away with. The fact he fomented an insurrection and got away with it only to be re-elected is hair-raising. He was impeached and convicted of a crime but still currently president. This parallel's Hitler's arrest and imprisonment in 1924. The system in Germany was working but then fell in 9 years! Clearly the system is not as robust to wannabe dictators as we perhaps once thought.

One of the things you learn when you know how real autocracies function is that you definitely don’t want to let things slide that direction just because they’re not that bad yet.

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The “if true” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your post. Every time the Islamic Republic sentences a protester to death, they accuse them of murdering a police officer.

Same article: > Sources told Iran International that both detainees were subjected to severe pressure and torture during interrogations. They have also been denied access to legal representation at all stages of the judicial process, including interrogation, prosecution, trial, and review by the Supreme Court.

Yes it is very far behind you have no f****** idea what you’re talking about. US ain’t that great but relatively speaking it’s 10000% better than Iran.

That's a pretty heartless response

The son of the assassinated ayatollah is in charge? But besides that fact, then why is the US still there if there's been a regime change and all of Iran's nuclear facilities have been "totally obliterated"

The issue is not sarcasm but the failure to understand why you are the problem with the post you made. Don’t put the onus on anyone but yourself.